Tales from Pete's World 9 - Back From The Future
by SciFiFanForever
Summary: Another day in the life of the Metacrisis Doctor and Rose, except this day takes an unexpected turn for the worse.
1. The Rings of Akhaten

**Chapter 1**

Pete Tyler wandered between the market stalls, looking on in wonder at all the goods that were on sale. His wife Jackie, was with his ten year old son Tony, who was bartering with one of the traders over some item that had taken his eye, whilst his daughter Rose and her children were looking at toys on another stall, and his son-in-law John browsed a food stall.

It reminded Pete of the early days of Vitex, when he used to sell his health drink from a stall in Choumert Road market in Peckham. He smiled to himself as he remembered the banter he'd have with the customers.

"You've tried Vimto. You've tried Fanta. Hell, you've probably even been Tango'd. But I'm willing to bet your taste buds haven't been to heaven yet. 'Cos if they had, you wouldn't be standing there listening to me, you'd be snatching my arm off to get these four packs of Vitex for just one pound."

He would give them a thumbs up and a cheeky wink. "Yes, you heard right. Our special introductory offer, and you can trust me on this. Just one pound!"

Jackie's cousin, Mo would step forward. "Oi! Mate. Over here. I'll have two packs." She would then talk to the other mothers in the crowd. "I bought a pack yesterday, just to see if the kids would drink it, and they lapped it up. It's like the nectar of the gods."

With this apparent endorsement of Vitex, the people started finding pound coins to buy a four pack and try it themselves. And to be fair, Mo wasn't lying. Pete had got the taste just right.

In this market though, the trader his son was talking to was shorter than Tony, with pebbly blue skin and three tentacle-like features on his head, and when he looked up, he could see the pale disk of a planet his son-in-law John, had called Akhaten.

Tony was examining a pair of high tech looking Rayban sunglasses. 'So what are these buttons and the slider for?' he asked the Groske trader.

'I not know. Never got them working,' he told Tony. 'You take them to a workshop, maybe someone clever get them working.'

Tony looked over his shoulder at his brother-in-law, who was taking the lid off a jar and sticking his nose in it to sniff the contents. Tony smiled to himself and turned back to the trader. 'I know someone clever. How much do you want for them?'

'Four credits,' the little blue alien told him.

'Oi!' Jackie said. 'He's gotta pay someone to get 'em workin'. Call it two credits.'

The Groske scowled at her. 'Hmph. Call it three and we have a deal.'

'Deal,' Tony said, and handed over three of the coins that John had given him.

The coins came from the Torchwood warehouse, where they had sat for years in a seemingly unopenable container. During a stocktake, John had recognised the container as a captain's safe from a star freighter and had promptly opened it. When he told Rose that they were standard Galactic Credits, she quickly arranged a shopping trip for her family.

'So, is this what you two used to get up to when you were in your old universe?' Pete asked Rose and John.

She beamed a broad smile. 'Pretty much, yeah. I just love these alien markets.'

'Love findin' trouble more like,' Jackie said as she and Tony joined them.

'Oh come on Mum. We told you trouble was just the bits inbetween us doin' stuff like this,' Rose replied, and thought about the last time she was in this market in the old universe. 'D'ya remember that little trinket I bought for ya that was warm when the weather was dry and cold when it was wet? I bought that from here . . . sort of. What was that stuff it was made of?'

'Bazoollium alloy,' John told her.

'Yeah, that was it. What ever happened to that?'

Jackie remembered. 'It got left behind when the Cybermen and Daleks kicked off an' we got dragged into this universe.'

'Oh yeah,' Rose said with a wistful smile and a far away look in her eyes.

'Right, so, who wants to see the flying fish then?' said John, tactfully changing the subject.

'Oh yeah,' EJ, his six year old son said eagerly.

The TARDIS landed in a valley, surrounded by strange, arched rock formations, just as it had all those years ago in the other universe. The rising sun shone through the formations, casting interesting shadows across the valley. Everyone walked down the ramp and stepped through the doors.

Rose looked at the faces of her children and smiled as they looked on in wonder at the strange landscape and the sun low on the horizon. There was a low whooshing sound, as a large "Manta Ray" like animal slowly glided over their heads, followed by another, and then another. They performed a graceful, aerial ballet in front of them, and they just stood there in awe, side by side.

"How many more wonders are you goin' to show me?" she remembered asking the Doctor on that day.

"How long are you going to stay with me?" he'd asked her, and she'd naively told him "Forever."

"Then there's a whole lifetime of wonders out there just waiting for us," he'd said back then, and when he'd split himself into two and stayed with her in this universe, he'd been right.

'Wow!' Pete breathed as one of the large rays glided directly over head. He had his arm around Jackie's shoulder, and he looked down at her. 'How was she ever going to stay at home when he could give her all this?'

Jackie looked up at him, and he nodded over to Rose, who was kneeling between EJ and Juleshka with her arms around their shoulders, while John crouched down next to Jason in the pushchair.

'Yeah . . . I never understood it at the time, because all they ever seemed to do was bring trouble with 'em. But now . . . well, just look at it.'

Everyone stood quietly, enjoying the demonstration of aerial prowess until the creatures had finished feeding and flown away.

* * *

There was a gentle rattle of milk bottles from the milk float, as it hummed its way around the corner from Talbot Road, into Northumberland Place. It was a quarter to seven, on a chilly, Spring morning, and the dawn chorus was in full voice in the leafy, tree lined street.

The float came to a halt a few yards down the road, and the milkman jumped down and went to the back of the float to take the bottles out of the crate and put them into the six bottle carrier. He checked for traffic, and crossed over the road to deliver the weekly order to the Smiths.

'Mornin' Jim,' a woman's voice said from the intercom speaker, as he climbed the steps to the front door.

'Mornin' Donna. Just the usual is it this week?' He said as he picked up the empties.

'Yeah, that's lovely thanks.'

On the first floor, Donna-the-house gently beeped the alarm clock in the empty master bedroom, its purpose redundant. 'Don't know why I bother,' Donna said to the empty room.

The intended recipients of its function were in the steam filled shower cubicle in the en suite bathroom. Grunts of pleasure, groans of satisfaction, and the squeaking of a bare bottom on the glass cubicle competed with the alarm.

'Mmmmmm. I'd better get dried off and get my uniform on. Alice will be along soon to give me a lift in,' Rose said, as she gave her husband a passionate kiss.

'Yeah,' John squeaked as she uncoupled her strong, shapely legs from around his hips. 'And I'll have to get the kids ready for school.'

While they got ready to start their day, Rickey the cyber dog trotted into their eldest son's bedroom and clambered up onto his bed. He proceeded to snuffle in his ear, and lick his face.

'Okay, okay. Enough already. I'm awake,' the six year old Eyulf said, stroking his pet's head and scratching it's ear.

The mechanical pet wagged his tail in satisfaction, jumped off the bed, and trotted out of the door to find the next recipient of his friendly wake up call. He moved across the transdimensional landingof the "larger on the inside" house, and into the bedroom opposite.

The three year old Juleshka was asleep on her side, and Rickey stood on his hind legs with his front paws on the bed. He gently licked her cute, button nose, and she stirred as she wiped her damp nose. Her eyes flickered open, and a smile spread across her face as she saw the dog balancing in front of her, wagging its tail.

She grabbed his ears and kissed him on the nose. 'Morning Rickey.'

He panted excitedly, licked her nose again, and trotted out of the room. He was heading for the kitchen to announce that his programming was complete and his two charges were awake. The eighteen month old Jason, asleep in his cot, wasn't on his list of duties just yet.

'Woof!'

'Good lad Rickey,' Donna-The-Robot said, reaching into the bowl of batteries, and flipping one into the air. He caught it in his mouth and swallowed it, absorbing the energy and "pooing" the used battery when it had been drained.

'Good boy,' Rose said, as she sat at the breakfast bar in her smart, black, Torchwood uniform,eating her muesli. A few minutes later, she heard small footsteps coming down the stairs and along the hallway. A young, red headed girl entered the kitchen, the hair colour having been inherited from her grandfather.

She was wearing a grey pinafore dress, with a white polo shirt underneath, and a blue cardigan with the school crest embroidered on it. She had white socks on (one up, one down), and black shoes.

'Mornin' Sweetheart,' Rose said with a smile, as she helped her daughter up onto the stool and kissed her on the top of her head.

'Morning Mummy, morning Donna.'

Donna's visual interface smiled. 'Hello Juleshka. What would you like for breakfast?'

'Cheerios please,' she declared with enthusiasm.

As Donna-The-Robot prepared a bowl of Cheerios, they heard a set of hurried footsteps coming down the stairs.

'Morning,' Eyulf said as he breezed into the kitchen and jumped up onto a stool.

'Mornin' Son,' Rose said, as she turned down the collar of his polo shirt and tucked it into the neck of his blue, school sweatshirt. She ran her fingers through his unruly hair, trying to get it into some semblance of order, before kissing him on the head.

'And what would Eyulf like for breakfast this mornin'?' Donna asked.

'Can I have some Shreddies please Donna?'

'One bowl of Shreddies comin' right up.'

'And a bowl of warm Ready Brek for this one,' John said from the doorway, as he carried Jason into the kitchen.He was wearing his usual brown, pinstriped suit, and dipped Jason down to receive a kiss from Rose, before sitting him in his high chair at the end of the counter.

There was a gentle hush in the kitchen, as breakfasts were eaten. John and Rose chatted about their day ahead, whilst Eyulf and Juleshka discussed the latest episodes of their favourite television shows.

'Alice is here,' Donna announced suddenly.

'Ooh, let her in please Donna,' Rose said.

They heard the front door open and close, and the clip-clop of heels along the hallway. There was a chorus of greetings as Alice entered the kitchen, wearing a grey trouser suit, with a purple blouse.

'How's Lillie?' Rose asked her.

'Spoilt rotten,' Alice laughed. 'What, with her dad doting over her, and your mother not letting Helen the nanny get a look in . . .'

Lillie was the three month old daughter of Alice DiMaggio, Rose's best friend, and head of psychology at Torchwood, and Alistair McKenzie, the house manager at Tyler Mansion. John and Rose were amazed at the change in Alistair since Lillie had been born. He would go about his duties at the mansion, in his usual smart suit, with his daughter slung in front of him in a baby harness. It was fair to say that he was totally besotted with her and her mother.

Rose finished her mug of tea, licked her lips, puckered up, and gave John a snog. 'See ya later, lover boy,' she said with her tongue through the teeth smile.

'Even if I see you first,' he replied, stroking her hips.

She reached her purse off the counter, and rummaged inside to find her lipstick and mirror. She applied her lippy, and pursed her lips together. 'Right, I'm ready. Be good kids and I'll see you this afternoon.'

'Bye Mum. Bye Auntie Alice,' Eyulf and Juleshka called back.

'Ma-ma-ma-ma,' Jason said, slapping his hands on the tray of his high chair.

'Bye,' Rose and Alice said as they headed down the hallway to the front door.

John and Donna would now get the children ready for their day, before doing the school run, and dropping Jason off with Jackie at the mansion. John and Rose had suggested using the very good child care facilities at Torchwood, but Jackie wouldn't hear of it. She loved her grandchildren, including Lillie, who she had adopted as an unofficial grandchild, after Alistair and then Alice had become so close to her and Pete.

So, after having taken Eyulf and Juleshka to their school, John took Jason to Tyler Mansion, where he had a quick cup of tea with Jackie.

'Oh John, would you be a love and have a look at these goggles for Tony?' Jackie handed him a pair of futuristic, reflective Ray ban glasses.

'Ooh, these are high tech. Where did he get these from?' he asked.

'It was that asteroid market you took us to last week.'

'Ah, Tiaanamat,' he said, nodding his head.

'Yeah. The little alien guy said they were vision enhancing, but he'd need someone to look at 'em to get 'em to work.'

'Well, I've not seen anything like these before, but I'll have a look. I should be able to get them working.'

'Thanks Love.'

John finished his cup of tea, kissed his son on the head, went to his car, and let Delores the DeLorian drive him to the Isle of Dogs.

* * *

In the Special Operations Unit of Torchwood Tower, Rose was overseeing the first day training of one of the new recruits who was shadowing Gwen O'Toole on the Despatch Desk. She recalled how she herself had first sat at this desk and nervously spoken to agents that she hadn't known that well at the time (except for Mickey and Jake of course).

After the Despatch Desk, she had moved on the the Communications Hub, known by everyone as just "Comms". There, she had learnt to collate incoming information from phone calls, news feeds and satellite data, and feed it to the people who needed it. At the moment, Chrissie Anderson was putting the other "rookie" through her paces on Comms.

Every so often, the Watches would have a reorganisation as people moved on from Special Operations, or with a promotion changed their role. When Mickey Smith remained in the "old" universe, Jake Simmonds had paired up with Julia De Graff. And when Jack became Director of Torchwood, his partner Gwen O'Toole paired up with Craig Rimmer.

And the new recruits were needed of course, because Rose and John had left their Field Agent positions. She was now Shift Supervisor for Blue Watch, and her husband was Scientific Lead for Torchwood.

Chrissie's trainee was a feisty young Scottish girl with red hair called Amy Pond. She had come to Torchwood's attention when an escaped alien convict had hidden in her family home in a Gloucestershire village. John had taken a team to apprehend the convict, and Amy had shown she had the right stuff when she helped them trap the alien.

"A kissogram?" Andy had said in astonishment when John had told him about her. "You want me to interview a kissogram for the position of Field Agent?"

But there was something about Amy Pond that resonated with John. She reminded him of Rose when he had first met her, and he felt that she would have made a brilliant travelling companion in the TARDIS. "Humour me," John had told him.

So Andy did humour him and his astonishment turned to admiration as he interviewed her. She was smart, sassy and nobody's fool. She passed the physical and aptitude tests, and was offered a training position. Her fiancé Rory wasn't sure about her taking the job, or about moving to London from the sleepy Cotswold village. But when he was offered a job as a trauma nurse in the Torchwood hospital wing, he finally came around to the idea.

Rose's trainee on the other hand, was a whole different kettle of fish. Craig Owens had worked in a call centre in Colchester, with no aspirations of being a secret agent that investigated aliens. He had considered himself and ordinary bloke, who was overweight but kept fit by playing football. He'd had a friend Sophie, who was a girl, who he didn't think would want to be his girl-friend.

The fact that an alien could land on the roof of his flat and disguise itself as an upstairs flat had never occurred to him. And the idea that the emergency crash program could entice people into the ship and burn out their minds as it tried to use them to fly away, would never have crossed his mind. But when Torchwood turned up to investigate the disappearances, his whole world had turned upside down.

"Good work up there," John had told him, as he had declared his love for Sophie to stop them from wanting to fly away, which imploded the ship's emergency crash program. "You should think about a change of career . . . try applying to Torchwood."

"What?!" Craig had exclaimed. "No . . . Really . . ? No! It's mental . . . I mean, it's just plain weird!"

"So was being in love with a girl and not telling her," John retorted.

"I . . . I . . ." Craig had tried to thing of a response, but he couldn't.

Andy had laughed when John introduced Craig, but let him try out for the team while he was there. Craig's competitive spirit from his football had kicked in when Andy had laughed at him, and he was going to show him. And to be fair, he had given quite a good account of himself. He had passed the aptitude tests, but had failed on the fitness. He had been too overweight.

He had been on his hands and knees, gasping for breath when Andy had walked over to him at the end of the assault course. "I'm sorry son," Andy had said kindly. "It was a spirited effort, but I'm afraid it wasn't quite good enough."

Craig had tried to speak, but had then ejected the contents of his stomach over the floor. Andy had seen this in the SAS selection process, where soldiers pushed themselves so hard that it made them vomit. Maybe he had underestimated this young man.

"One month," Craig had gasped, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

"What was that?" Andy had asked.

"Give me one month and let me try again. I'll nail this sucker."

Andy had a stern expression on his face, which had softened as a smile had formed in the corner of his lips. "Y'know kid, I think you just might . . . Okay. One month, back here, and show me if I'm right about you."

And so it was, after one month, a gym membership, and seven kilos of weight loss, Craig had returned. And although he hadn't "nailed the sucker", he had managed to finish the assault course in the designated time.

"Well, you did it son," Andy had told him. "What do you think of that?"

"I think I did the best that I could for now . . . but I'm gonna do it better," Craig had replied.

Andy had laughed and slapped him on the back, which had very nearly knocked him over. "Welcome to Torchwood."


	2. Discovering aliens

**Chapter 2**

Alice DiMaggio was sitting in a comfortable armchair, in a tastefully decorated living room of an ordinary house in Croydon. Everything about the house said middle class suburbia. She had a sip of her tea before getting down to the matter in hand. 'So, Mrs. Knight. What can you tell me about Adam's behaviour?'

Erica Knight was a woman of average height and build, with dark hair, a warm smile, and kind eyes. At the moment, those kind eyes held a look of concern. 'Well, Adam has always been a bit of a loner,' she started to explain. 'You know, a bit of an outsider. He seemed to find it difficult to interact with other children at school.'

Alice nodded as she consulted Adam's medical record from the family practitioner, school reports, and the psychiatric report from the hospital. 'None of the usual childhood illnesses,' she noted. 'Excellent exam results from the school, with his teachers praising his behaviour. And no autism, Asperger's or other condition to explain his inability to socialise.'

Erica gave a single laugh. 'Yes. A perfect child.'

'Adam has an exceptionally high I.Q. They used to call them "gifted children", but now the term is "the more able child" or "a high achiever",' Alice explained. 'Extrovert learners who find learning easy tend to become the disruptive class clown. Introverted learners such as Adam, tend to focus on the learning and retreat into their own sphere of knowledge.'

Erica nodded. 'That's what the educational psychologist said in junior school, and he was the same in the first few years of secondary school. But then, he seemed to change. We put it down to puberty and all those hormones at first, but it's as though he's on edge all the time . . . like he's waiting for something to happen. We're worried that he may be suffering from depression.'

'Does Adam know he's adopted?' Alice asked. She knew how differently people could react to the knowledge that they were not the person they thought they were. That they could feel they had been living a lie.

'Oh yes,' Erica answered. 'As soon as he was old enough to understand, we explained that he had a mother and father who had produced him so that Lloyd and myself could raise him and love him as our own.'

Alice smiled. 'That's a nice way of putting it . . . Did you meet Adam's birth mother?'

'Oh yes. She insisted on it. And I must say, she wasn't at all what I expected a single mother wanting to put her child up for adoption to be like.'

Alice's profiler expertise kicked in as Erica mentioned that. 'Really? What were you expecting?'

'Oh, I don't know. An immature girl who was taken advantage of and ended up pregnant and down on her luck.'

'And instead of that, what was she?'

'A young woman who had an air about her. It's hard to explain, but it was as though she wasn't so much giving her baby away, as entrusting him into our care.'

'And what makes you say that?' Alice asked.

Erica laughed. 'It's probably just my being silly. It was just a feeling . . . call it a woman's intuition. There was nobility in her, and a sad, haunted look in her eyes.'

The description of "sad nobility" intrigued Alice. It was time to interview Adam, who would normally have been at school, but today was a teacher training day. 'Would it be all right if I spoke to Adam? I'd like to assess his mental state . . .'

'Mental state?' Erica asked with concern.

Alice gave her a reassuring smile. 'Don't worry, it's not as bad as it sounds. I just need to find out what makes him "tick" . . . what makes him happy, what makes him sad, that sort of thing.'

'Oh I see. Yes of course, I'll call him down.' Erica stood, opened the door of the living room, and called up the stairs. 'Adam . . . would you come down please? There's someone here to see you.'

Alice heard floorboards taking the weight of someone upstairs and a door opening.

'Is it Lyndsey?' a young voice called out eagerly, as footsteps came down the stairs. A tall, thin, fourteen year old boy entered the living room wearing jeans and T-shirt. He had neat black hair and emerald green eyes that Alice noticed flitted cautiously around the room. Those eyes seemed to reflect the intelligence of the owner.

'No,' Alice said. 'Sorry to disappoint you. My names Alice.'

'Miss DiMaggio wants to ask you a few questions about how you've been feeling lately,' Erica told him.

Adam looked at her suspiciously. 'Are you another shrink?'

'Adam!' Erica was about to admonish him about his rudeness, but Alice raised her hand to stop her.

'Direct and to the point. I like that, it makes my job so much easier,' Alice said with a disarming smile. 'I'm a psychologist, not a psychiatrist.' She could see the look of confusion on their faces.

'In computer terms, I look at the application software rather than the operating system.'

Adam seemed to accept this and gave a nod of understanding, and Alice gave him a cheeky smile. 'Who's Lyndsey, your girlfriend?'

'No. She's just a mate. We hang out together . . . do revision and studying and stuff.'

'She's a lovely girl,' Erica added. 'We were really pleased when he seemed to find a kindred spirit.'

Alice started to ask a series of questions that she'd modified from the Hare Psychopathy Checklist, which is used for indicating a dimensional score, or a categorical diagnosis, of psychopathy for clinical, legal or research purposes. It wasn't that she thought Adam was a psychopath, but it would indicate a dimensional score of an alien who was pretending to be human.

As she worked her way through the twenty item inventory of perceived personality traits and recorded behaviours, it became apparent to her that Adam was not what he appeared to be.

* * *

In the Standby Room, during a tea break, some of the field agents were getting to know Amy as camera director David Rea, filmed some fill in scenes for the popular "fly on the wall" documentary "Torchwood". The new recruits had become very popular with the viewersduring their basic training, and were following their progress with interest.

'I take it from your accent that you're originally from Scotland,' Gwen asked.

'Yeah, my parents moved to Leadworth when I was around five or six. I never seemed to lose the accent though.'

'What is an accent?' Angel asked her.

Amy was stumped by that question. 'Er, it's . . . er . . .'

Chrissie came to her aid. 'It's a distinctive way of pronouncing words, Angel. Especially words associated with a particular country, area, or social class.'

'Oh, so that is why Andre sounds different to you,' Angel said in realisation. 'And "Welsh" Pete sounds different to Amy.'

'That's right,' Chrissie agreed, noticing that Amy was frowning at Angel. 'Oh, you haven't met Angel yet, have you?' she said to Amy. 'Before you and Craig arrived, she was our latest recruit . . . and our first alien agent.'

Amy's jaw dropped. 'You're an alien?!'

Angel stroked her hair behind her pixie ears to show her the proof. 'That is correct. I was originally a child care assistant here in the day care centre, but then applied for selection as a field agent and passed the test.'

'Child care assistant . . . that's better than being a kissogram,' Amy said with a laugh.

'What's a kissogram?' Angel asked with a deadpan expression.

Amy blushed. 'Well . . . I sorta dressed up as a policewoman, or a nun, oh, and a nurse, and I kissed men.'

'Ah, I see. That's like when Andre asks me to wear my uniform when we . . .'

'Angel,' Rose interrupted as she wandered over with Craig. 'How are things with you and Andre these days?'

'Good, I think Rose,' Angel replied uncertainly.

'You don't sound so sure.'

'Well, he said he would like to take our relationship to the next level and has asked me to move into his apartment. Is this a good thing?'

'Well, that all depends,' Gwen said philosophically. 'I mean, me and Ben have a great time together, but we wouldn't want to live together.'

'Take no notice of her Angel, she's weird,' Julia said. 'That's brilliant. If you love Andre, then living together is the next logical step.'

'What is love?' Angel asked. 'And how do I know if I'm in it with Andre?'

Rose laughed. 'Blimey! How'dya answer that one?' She thought about her time with John, and before that when he was the Doctor. 'Okay. When you are not with Andre, how does that feel? What do you think about?'

'It feels lonely, and I think about when I will be with him again.'

Rose smiled. She could identify with that. 'And when you are with him?'

'He makes me happy, and I think about when we will practice making babies.'

Craig spluttered on his coffee.

'See?' Gwen said. 'That's not weird. We just love having nookie.'

'I don't get it with you and Ben,' Julia told her. 'What about commitment and relationships?'

'How can I explain it? Me and Ben are committed to having great sex with each other, and our relationship is that we are best mates. But we don't want to live on top of each other.'

She then had an idea of how to explain it using her experience of extreme sports. 'Right. It's like this. Julia, you love Viktor don't you?'

'Yeah. Of course.'

'And Jake, you love Sarah?'

'Who?' Jake said with a cheeky grin.

Gwen returned his grin. 'Everyone who's watched the program knows you love her. So, imagine you and Julia do a tandem skydive and get the adrenalin rush. When you land, you're on a high. You've shared something special and wonderful, so you hug and kiss.'

Jake and Julia exchanged a look. When Julia had been shot on a mission, and Jake had patched her up, she had kissed him. It was one of those moments that two people share in life and death moments, and they had told nobody about it.

'Er, yeah. I suppose,' Jake said.

'And then you go home to Sarah, and Julia goes home to Viktor. Well, when me and Ben get together, it's like we are doing that skydive, and then we go to our own homes, knowing we will be going skydiving again in the future.'

The group nodded in understanding. It might not be for them, but they could see how it worked for her and Ben.

'I've got a question,' Craig said and everyone looked at him. He dunked a biscuit in his tea and looked up with a cheeky smile. 'Where can I sign up for some skydiving lessons?'

Everyone laughed, and the status board "bonged" for their attention. Rose went over to the screen and read the alert. 'It's a request from the CAA at Stansted Airport. Two pilots have reported a close encounter with an unidentified craft that nearly collided with their airship.'

'We can take that Rose,' Jake said as he finished his tea.

Julia stood and finished her tea as well, taking the mugs and putting them in the sink of the kitchen area. Will Hustler picked up his camera gear and made ready to leave with them.

As they left Special Operations, Alice DiMaggio entered, looking for the shift supervisor, her best friend, Rose Smith.

'Alice,' Rose called over to her. 'How was the interview?'

'Interesting. The family doctor was right to call us. Adam Knight is an alien, but he doesn't know it.'

'Really? What's the story?'

'Well, from what I can tell from his adoptive mother, Adam's birth mother was very particular about who adopted her son. There was something about how she described Adam's birth mother.'

'Like what?'

'I can't put my finger on it, but it's as though he was hidden here on earth. I think we need to access the adoption records and see what we can find.'

Rose nodded and looked over at the sofas. 'Angel. Alice has some details here. She needs you and Andre to take a trip to the National Archives at Kew and check the adoption records. Pop to the twelfth floor on the way out and get Legal to raise the paperwork.'

'Of course Rose.' Alice handed Angel a tablet PC with all the information on that she would need.

Rose frowned. 'Where is Andre anyway?'

'His scanner had an intermittent fault so he went to the equipment store to exchange it. Chris Greenwood went with him to film the procedure.'

'Okay, let Chris shadow you on this one.'

Angel smiled and nodded. 'I will see you later.'

Rose smiled at her attempt at colloquial English. 'You're gettin' better at that. See ya later.'

* * *

At Tyler Mansion, Jackie was enjoying a cuddle with Lillie, whilst watching Philip Schofield and Amanda Holden on "This Morning" on the television. Helen, the child care assistant who they employed as a nanny to the children, had gone to the kitchen to prepare the bottles of formula milk, and a puréed meal for Jason, who was on his playmat, tasting the plastic bricks before balancing them to build a tower. He was watching the two presenters on the TV, when he suddenly dropped the brick he had been tasting, and his bottom lip started to tremble.

Tears trickled down his cheeks, and he started to cry. 'Ma-ma, want ma-ma!'

He stood up and tottered over to his grandmother with his arms reaching up towards her, his face distorted by his anguished crying.

'Oh Sweetheart, whatever's the matter?' Jackie lowered the sleeping Lillie into her carry-cot, and picked up the inconsolable Jason.

'Want ma-ma,' he sobbed as she rocked him and patted his back, trying to calm him down and work out what had upset him so much. It couldn't have been anything on the TV; it was just harmless daytime viewing. Several minutes later, the phone rang, and Alistair picked it up in the hall. A few seconds later, he entered the living room, carrying the cordless phone.

'Excuse me Mrs. Tyler; it's a Mr. Prentice, the headmaster at Eyulf and Juleshka's school.'

'What? Is something wrong?' She took the phone off Alistair.

''Ello?' She said into the phone.

['Is that Mrs. Tyler, Eyulf, and Juleshka Smith's grandmother?'] A warm, calming voice asked.

Jackie had a knot of dread forming in her stomach. 'What's happened, what's wrong?' Her grandchildren were model pupils, and were in perfect health. There must have been an accident, she thought. One of them has been injured. But why didn't they contact their parents at work?

['Er, please don't worry Mrs. Tyler, nothing has happened as far as we can tell, it's just that your grandchildren seem to have become very distressed without warning.']

Jackie glanced down at Jason in her arms, who was still gently sobbing. 'Is EJ there to speak to?'

['Yes, of course, I'll put him on. (It's your grandmother; she wants to talk to you.)']

['Grandma,'] he cried into the phone. ['We've lost Mum and Dad. We can't feel them.']

'Eyulf, Sweetheart. Whatever do you mean?' Jackie asked, dreading what he would say next. She heard him sniff and take a shuddering breath.

['They are always with us, in our minds, even when they travel off to another galaxy or another time line.'] He started to cry again. ['But they've gone and left us. We're all alone, and I'm scared Grandma.']

Jackie could feel tears starting to burn her eyes, but knew she had to be strong for her grandchildren. 'All right EJ, I'll send someone to fetch you. Can you give the phone back to the headmaster?'

Whilst she waited for EJ to hand back the phone, she spoke to Alistair. 'Can you call Pete from his office please, and then go and collect EJ and Juleshka from the school please?'

'Of course Ma'am,' he replied and left the room.

['Hello, Mrs. Tyler I . . .']

'Mr. Prentice,' Jackie interrupted. 'My house manager, Alistair McKenzie is coming to collect the children. I think something terrible has happened, and they need to be with their family.'

['Of course Mrs. Tyler, I'll make sure they are ready when he arrives.']

'Thank you.' Jackie hesitated before speaking again. 'Mr. Prentice . . . have you tried to contact their parents?'

['Yes I have, but both the office number and their mobiles go unanswered. I hope nothing untoward has happened to them. The children seem to have convinced themselves that something has happened.']

'I hope so too,' Jackie whispered into the phone. 'Thank you Mr. Prentice.'

Pete hurried into the room as she put the phone down on the sofa where she was sitting.

'Jackie, what's occurring?' he asked in concern. 'Alistair seemed a bit agitated.'

'Want ma-ma,' Jason sobbed, as if in answer to his question.

Jackie then lost her composure, and tears started to flow. 'Oh Pete. The kids can't feel Rose or John. I think somethin' terrible has happened.'

Pete took his mobile phone out of his pocket, speed dialling his son-in-law as he picked up the TV remote and selected the SKY NEWS channel. As he listened to the gentle "burring" of the ring tone, he could see Canary Wharf on the news. When there was no answer on John's phone, he stopped the call, and dialled his daughter.

['We are going live now to Canary Wharf, where reports of gunfire and explosions have been reported coming from inside Torchwood Tower,'] the studio announcer said.

Jackie put her hand to her mouth. 'Oh dear God no,' she gasped.

Pete stopped the unanswered call to Rose, and then tried Jack Harkness, the director of the Torchwood Institute. After a few rings, Jack's voice came on the phone.

['Pete, what's up?'] his cheerful voice asked.

'Jack! Where are you?' Pete almost shouted.

['Number Ten. It's my monthly meeting with the President.']

'What's happening at the Tower?' Pete demanded.

['The Tower?'] Jack was starting to pick up on Pete's obvious distress.

'Check the news and call me back.'

He and Jackie watched the outside broadcast, as people were evacuated from the financial district through the police cordon. Army Lorries from UNIT were waved through, along with a black Range Rover.

'Pete, that was Julia and Jake in that Range Rover,' Jackie said.

'Are you sure Love?'

'Course I'm sure,' she snapped. 'Try Jake's mobile, see if he knows what's goin' on.'

Pete selected Jake's number from his contact list and hit dial. The call was answered after a couple of rings. ['Pete, is that you?'] Jake's Geordie voice asked.

'JAKE! What's happening? We've lost contact with John and Rose, and the news report is saying gunfire and explosions have been heard inside.'

['Well, you know more than us Pete. We've just got back from a shout, and found the tower in a security lock down.']

Oh God. It was what Pete feared the most. Something so terrible, that the tower had been isolated from the external environment. All communications, including telephones and internet connections were cut. Even the air vents were sealed, not even a micro organism could get in or out. Whatever had happened in the tower, stayed in the tower, and there was no way to find out what was occurring inside.

Pete slumped down in a chair and rubbed his hand over his face. He ended the call without speaking, he couldn't speak. Jackie looked over and was shocked at what she saw. The confident, authoritative, former director of the Torchwood Institute appeared to be a broken man as he quietly wept.

'Pete? What did Jake say?'

'It's bad . . . He said it's bad,' he whispered.

'Ma-ma. Want Ma-ma,' Jason intoned, like a mantra to his missing parents.


	3. Lock down

**Chapter 4**

There was a gentle rattle of milk bottles from the milk float, as it hummed its way around the corner from Talbot Road, into Northumberland Place. It was a quarter to seven, on a chilly, Spring morning, and the dawn chorus was in full swing in the leafy, tree lined street.

The float came to a halt a few yards down the road, and the milkman jumped down and went to the back of the float to take the bottles out of the crate and put them into the six bottle carrier. He didn't notice the strange wheezing and grinding noise, as he checked for traffic, and crossed over the road to deliver the weekly order to the Smiths.

'Mornin' Jim,' a woman's voice said from the intercom speaker, as he climbed the steps to the front door.

'Mornin' Donna. Just the usual is it this week?' He said as he put the full bottles on the top step, and put the empty ones into the carrier.

'Yeah, that's lovely thanks.'

He turned around and headed back to his float. He didn't notice the small boy in a blue sweatshirt, grey flannel trousers, with a mop of unruly hair, run up the steps to the front door.

'Eyulf. What are you doin' out here?' Donna-The-House asked.

'Can't say Donna, it might cause all sorts of trouble. In fact, I might have already.'

'Are you all right? I'm detectin' elevated stress intonation in your voice . . . Hang on; my sensor log is tellin' me you're asleep in your bed.'

'Sorry Donna,' he blurted out as he ran through the front door. 'I've got to see Mum and Dad before it's too late.' He could feel their warm, loving presence in his mind again, and it felt wonderful.

On the first floor, his parents didn't hear the alarm clock, as they were in the steam filled shower cubicle in the en suite bathroom. Their grunts of pleasure, groans of satisfaction, and the squeaking of a bare bottom on the glass cubicle drowned out the alarm.

'Mmmmmm. I'd better get dried off and get my uniform on. Alice will be along soon to give me a lift in,' Rose said, as she gave her husband a passionate kiss.

'Yeah,' John squeaked as she uncoupled her strong, shapely legs from around his hips. 'And I'll have to get the kids ready for school.'

Rose wiped her hair back over her head, and looked into her husband's eyes. 'Are you all right Love? You seem a bit distracted.'

'Eh? Oh yeah. I just had a feeling of Deja vu, y'know, like I've done this before.'

Rose gave him her tongue between the teeth smile, as she rubbed her wet body up against him. 'But we have, lots of times,' she purred.

He laughed and kissed her on the lips. 'I know, but when a part Time Lord has Deja vu, it usually means that something is messing with the time lines.'

'How so?' she asked, as he turned off the taps and opened the cubicle.

He hesitated as he thought about an example that held painful memories for his wife. 'Remember in the old universe, when I took you back to see your father.'

'Oh yeah,' she said quietly, remembering that terrible day as she wrapped a towel around her.

'Well, when we went back for the second try, the original me could feel us standing behind us . . . if you know what I mean.'

She smiled and stroked his cheek. 'Yeah, I know what ya mean. So what do you think it is then?'

He shrugged his shoulders as he finished securing the towel around his waist. 'Won't know that until it comes and slaps me in the face.'

He rubbed his cheek and remembered a previous slap in a previous life. 'Must try and come up with a different phrase for that.'

Rose laughed, and then looked at the bathroom door, as she heard someone rush into the bedroom on the other side. 'Who's there?'

'Mum?'

'Eyulf, what's the matter?' She could feel his distress, and the relief of hearing her voice. Had he been woken up by a nightmare? As she stepped into the bedroom, he hugged her tightly around her waist, almost pulling the towel off her.

'You're back,' he cried. 'You're back.'

John came out of the en suite and knelt down to be on the same level as his distraught son.

'Dad! You're back too,' he cried, hugging him around the neck.

'Hey, hey. I'm all wet,' John said, as he gently patted his back.

'I don't care. You're back,' he said again.

John could sense that this was the source of his Deja vu. 'Okay Son, calm down and tell me what's happened.'

'I've come back from the future to tell you not to go to work today.' He saw his parent's worried frowns. 'I'm sorry if I've broken the rules or somethin', but we lost you, and we couldn't feel you, and somethin' bad happened at the tower, and everybody was crying . . . and please don't go to work, you can't . . . you just can't.'

'What happened at Torchwood?' Rose asked in Field Agent mode, trying to ascertain the threat and formulate a response.

'Rose,' John said, giving her a warning look. Knowledge of future events could change your actions, cause you to make decisions that would cause a paradox. Hell, that might already have happened with his son coming back to warn them.

John held his son's shoulders and looked deep into his eyes. 'I promise son, we won't go into work today.' He looked up at Rose. 'Can you call Andy and ask him to do the Watch briefing, oh and call Alice so that she doesn't come to pick you up.'

'Yeah,' she nodded, and went over to the bedside table to reach her mobile.

'How did you get back here? Did anyone help you?' he asked his son, worried that he may not be able to get back on his own.

'I came on my own . . . except for the TARDIS of course, she helped me to get it right.'

'Okay son, let me throw some clothes on, and I'll walk you back to the TARDIS,' he said, rubbing himself with a towel and taking his clothes through to the bathroom.

Rose came over and knelt down so that they could hug, her wet strands of hair brushing the side of his face and neck. 'Thanks Sweetheart. I love you.' She wiped his wet cheek, and wiped a tear off her own cheek. 'Go on then, off you go. Rickey will be waking you up soon, and you don't want to bump into yourself.'

'Yeah,' he said, hugging her again around the neck. 'I love you Mum.'

John appeared from the bathroom a short while later, wearing blue jeans, white converse, and a black sweatshirt. He held his hand out for his son, and they quickly left the bedroom before anyone woke up.

Ten minutes later, John returned to the house, and found Rose in the kitchen wearing her faded blue jeans, white trainers and a baggy, grey T-shirt that hung off one shoulder. She was scrutinising her laptop, whilst Eyulf and Juleshka were sitting at the breakfast bar with her eating their bowls of cereal.

'What the HELL was all that about?' Rose asked as she looked up from the screen.

John walked towards her and wrapped his arms around her waist. 'That my love,' he started as he kissed her lips. 'Was our brilliant son. . .' He nibbled her ear. 'With the help of our brilliant TARDIS. . .' He kissed her neck. 'Saving our lives.'

'Will he be all right on his own?' She was worried about a six year old having to go through that ordeal.

'He'll be fine. If we stay at home, the events that he's experienced won't happen, and he won't ever have come back here,' John tried to explain.

'But shouldn't we warn someone, y'know, get them to evacuate Torchwood.'

'And tell them what? That something, but we don't know what, is going to happen, but we don't know when. Don't forget, crossing into established events is risky.'

She remembered the time when she had tried to save her father in the old universe, and it had not gone well. 'But EJ said somethin' bad happened at the tower, our friends will be there.'

'Okay, when you phone Andy, tell him we're following up on some new intelligence and that he should put the Watch onto amber alert. I'll phone Security and suggest they test their procedures today.'

'Oh that's brilliant, thank you.'

'There's no guarantee though that our phone calls don't initiate a chain of events that lead to the bad thing happening,' he told her.

'Oh don't. Yer doin' me head in.'

'I was only saying,' he said with a laugh as he left the kitchen. 'I'll go and get Jason.'

When he returned to the kitchen carrying Jason, he saw that Rose was still studying the Torchwood bulletin boards.

'Whatever you're looking for,' John said, not wanting to worry the children that something might be wrong. 'Won't potentially happen until after 10 o'clock.' That would have been the time when he would have arrived at work.

'Oh yeah,' Rose said sheepishly. 'Sorry.'

He smiled at her, and turned to Donna-The-Robot. 'A bowl of warm Ready Brek for this one please Donna.' He dipped Jason down to receive a kiss from Rose, before sitting him in his high chair at the end of the counter.

'So, are you two workin' from home today then?' Donna-The-Robot asked them, as she put the bowl of cereal on the high chair tray.

'Yeah, slight change of plan today,' Rose said, as she spooned the warm porridge into her son's mouth.

'Rose will monitor the Torchwood bulletin boards on her tablet, and I can work on a funding project in my workshop,' John told her.

* * *

Gwen O'Toole was on the Despatch Desk, collating data, and coordinating agents in the field. David Rea, one of the camera directors for the television production company, was filming her for the fly-on-the wall documentary called "Torchwood".

She was showing Craig Owens how to operate the high tech multimedia control desk, although it was like trying to teach her grandmother to suck eggs due to his background in a call centre. The viewing public had taken the new recruits to their hearts during their basic training, and were getting a lot of attention from the camera directors.

The other recruit, Amy Pond was being put through her paces on the Communications desk in the Despatch Office by Chrissie Anderson, and seemed to be doing quite well.

The Watch were on amber alert after Captain McNab received a phone call from John Smith. There were no details, just that he had received intelligence that there was a potential threat. Torchwood security had also been testing their procedures, and everyone seemed to be on edge.

'Right. I think these two need a break,' Julia said to Chrissie. 'Their brains must be scrambled with all this new stuff they're learning.'

Chrissie gave her a lopsided smile. 'What you mean is you could do with a cuppa.'

'Could I? That's very good of you Chief, mine's milk one sugar please,' Gwen said with a cheeky grin'

'Brilliant,' David said as he shrugged the camera off his shoulder. 'The viewers love this banter.'

Chrissie laughed and called out to the Standby Room. 'Pete, Danny. Would you relieve in Despatch while our trainees have some reflection time please?'

'No problem.'

'Be right with you.'

The new recruits went through to the kitchen area and poured themselves a cup of tea, before having a seat on one of the comfy sofas.

Members of the Watch started chatting to the new recruits in an attempt to get to know them and make them feel welcome. They had all been rookies themselves once, and remembered how a kind word and a bit of conversation had made them feel at home.

Andy McNab was in the glass fronted Supervisor's Office, which looked out over the Standby Room. He could see the multimedia status screens and the virtual wall to the New York Standby Room, which was empty at the moment. It would be around five A.M over there and he reckoned they were having a busy shift.

He smiled to himself as he saw his agents sitting with the rookies and chatting to them, trying to make them feel part of the team on their first proper day in the unit. Special Operations Field Agent had to be one of the most challenging jobs in Torchwood, different to a special forces soldier, but just as involved and varied.

Danny Walton had received a request for specialist support on the Communications Desk from Civil Aviation Authority, and fed that through to the status board. The multimedia screen "bonged" to alert the Standby Room that a "shout" had come in. Andy rose from his desk and checked the details on his tablet as he walked to the door.

'Two pilots at Stansted spooked by an unidentified craft that nearly collided with their airship on a flight from Dusseldorf. Who wants that one?' he called through the doorway.

Jake looked at Julia and she nodded. 'We'll take that one Boss,' he said as he finished his tea.

'Okay. Standard interview, descriptions and drawings. Radar logs and then back here to check satellite feeds.'

'No problem. See you later,' said Julia. She stood and finished her tea as well, taking the mugs and putting them in the sink of the kitchen area. Will Hustler picked up his camera gear and made ready to leave with them.

As they left Special Operations, Alice DiMaggio entered, looking for the shift supervisor.

'How was the interview?' Andy asked her as she approached.

'Interesting. The family doctor was right to call us. Adam Knight is an alien, but he doesn't know it.'

'Or he does know it and he's some kind of sleeper agent,' Andy suggested, thinking like a special forces soldier.

'I don't think so. I didn't get that impression from his adoptive mother. Adam's birth mother was very particular about who adopted her son. There was something about how she described Adam's birth mother.'

'And how was that?'

'I can't put my finger on it, but it's as though he was hidden here on Earth. I think we need to access the adoption records and see what we can find.'

Andy nodded and looked over at the sofas. 'Angel. Alice has some details here. She needs you and Andre to take a trip to the National Archives at Kew and check the adoption records. Stop off on the twelfth floor on the way out and get Legal to raise the paperwork.'

'Of course Captain.' Alice handed Angel a tablet PC with all the information on that she would need.

Andy frowned. 'Where is Andre anyway?'

'His scanner had an intermittent fault so he went to the equipment store to exchange it. Chris Greenwood went with him to film the procedure.'

'Okay, let Chris shadow you on this one.'

Angel smiled and nodded. 'I will see you later.'

* * *

It was late morning when John came up the stairs from his basement workshop. He found Rose in the living room, playing with Jason, and watching SKY NEWS. Her tablet was next to her on the sofa showing the Torchwood status.

'Anything happening?' he asked her, as he leaned over the back of the sofa and kissed her neck.

'No, it's all pretty ordinary so far. I wonder when it actually happened, whatever IT was?' she said.

'Well, I got the impression from my time sense when EJ was telling us about it, that it was mid morning . . . ish,' John said as he ran his fingers through his hair.

'So it looks like our genius son did it then,' she smiled.

'Yep. So how does lunch at the mansion sound?'

'Eh?' She wasn't expecting that.

'When I phoned Jackie to tell her we were working from home, she invited us over for lunch. I think she was looking forward to having Jason for the day, and you'll be able to coo over Lillie.'

'Oh yeah. That'll be nice.'

Rose grabbed the baby bag, John picked up Jason, and they made their way out of the front door.

'See ya later Donna,' Rose called out, as the door closed and they went down the steps to the paved area where the DeLorian was parked.

At the mansion, the two women swapped their bundles, as Jackie cuddled Jason, and Rose cuddled Lillie. The cook had prepared a beautiful lunch, where Jackie and Rose talked about the children, whilst John and Pete talked about Torchwood and the Tyler Foundation.

As everyone was making their way back to the sitting room, Jackie spotted something that Tony had left for John on the hall table. 'Oh John, I nearly forgot, would you be a love and have a look at a pair of goggles for Tony?' She picked them up and followed everyone into the room, handing a pair of futuristic, reflective Ray ban glasses to John.

'Ooh, these are high tech. Where did he get these from?' he asked.

'It was that asteroid market you took us to last week.'

'Oh, Tiaanamat,' Rose said, 'That was a brilliant day out.'

'Yeah, it was,' Jackie agreed. 'The little alien guy said they were vision enhancing, but he'd need someone to look at 'em to get 'em to work.'

John reached out his sonic screwdriver, and fiddled with the setting. 'Well, I've not seen anything like these before, but I'll have a look. I should be able to get them working.'

As the sonic whistled and warbled, he started talking to no one in particular. 'Never fails to amaze me y'know . . .'

'Eh, what does?' Rose asked, as she helped Jason with his bottle of juice.

'Nine hundred plus years, and I can still come across stuff I've never seen before. Ah, here we are, I think that's got it.' He put the glasses on and adjusted the controls on the side of the frames.

'What do they do?' Pete asked, as John looked around the room.

'Haven't a clue, but I'm sure I'll find out,' he said, as he adjusted a slider switch. As he looked at Rose and moved the slider back, her clothes started to fade, until she was sitting in her bra and knickers, with Jason just wearing a nappy.

'Ah, now I'm getting it.' He moved the slider back a fraction more, and his wife and son were naked. A mischievous grin spread across his face, which turned to a grimace as he looked at Jackie. He quickly returned his gaze back to his gorgeous wife. Yes, that was better.

'What can ya see?' she asked him with a smile.

'Everything,' he said absently, and then realised what he'd said. '. . . Is brighter and crisper. They must be for. . . artists.' He moved the slider a bit more, and Rose's skin disappeared. He was now looking at her musculature, and as he continued to move it back, he saw internal organs, blood vessels, and bones. He slid it forwards again, but not all the way, of course.

'Ah, I think they might be for a doctor or a medic. They're brilliant,' he said, still grinning at his naked wife.

'Let's have a look then,' Jackie said, holding out her hand for them.

'What? Oh, er, ah, hang on.' He adjusted the slider to muscle, and clicked it in place. 'There you are, have a look at that.'

Jackie put the glasses on and pulled a face. 'Oh my gawd. I can see yer insides.'

'Ooh, let's see,' Rose said, and put them on. 'Oh Mum, these are brilliant. Here Dad, have a look.'

Pete put them on, and the astonished look on his face made them laugh. 'Hah. Tony starts secondary school in September; these will be brilliant for his science subjects.'

As he looked at everyone in turn, blurry figures seemed to appear in the room. 'I think they need a bit of fine tuning,' is the last thing he said.


	4. Groundhog Day

**Chapter 4**

There was a gentle rattle of milk bottles from the milk float, as it hummed its way around the corner from Talbot Road, into Northumberland Place. It was a quarter to seven, on a chilly, Spring morning, and the dawn chorus was in full swing in the leafy, tree lined street.

The float came to a halt a few yards down the road, and the milkman jumped down and went to the back of the float to take the bottles out of the crate and put them into the six bottle carrier. He didn't notice the strange wheezing and grinding noise, as he checked for traffic, and crossed over the road to deliver the weekly order to the Smiths.

'Mornin' Jim,' a woman's voice said from the intercom speaker, as he climbed the steps to the front door.

'Mornin' Donna. Just the usual is it this week?' He said as he put the full bottles on the top step, and put the empty ones into the carrier.

'Yeah, that's lovely thanks.'

He turned around and headed back to his float. He didn't notice the small boy in a blue sweatshirt, grey flannel trousers, with a mop of unruly hair, run up the steps to the front door.

'Eyulf. What are you doin' out here?' Donna-The-House asked.

'Can't say Donna, it might cause all sorts of trouble. In fact, I might have already.'

'Are you all right? I'm detectin' elevated stress intonation in your voice . . . Hang on; my sensor log is tellin' me you're asleep in your bed.'

'Sorry Donna,' he blurted out as he ran through the front door. 'I've got to see Mum and Dad before it's too late.' He could feel their warm, loving presence in his mind again, and it felt wonderful.

On the first floor, his parents didn't hear the alarm clock, as they were in the steam filled shower cubicle in the en suite bathroom. Their grunts of pleasure, groans of satisfaction, and the squeaking of a bare bottom on the glass cubicle drowned out the alarm.

'Mmmmmm. I'd better get dried off and get my uniform on. Alice will be along soon to give me a lift in,' Rose said, as she gave her husband a passionate kiss.

'Yeah,' John squeaked as she uncoupled her strong, shapely legs from around his hips. 'And I'll have to get the kids ready for school.'

Rose wiped her hair back over her head, and looked into her husband's eyes. 'Are you all right Love? You seem a bit distracted.'

'Eh? Oh yeah. I just had a feeling of Deja vu, y'know, like I've done this before.'

Rose gave him her tongue between the teeth smile, as she rubbed her wet body up against him. 'But we have, lots of times,' she purred.

He laughed and kissed her on the lips. 'I know, but when a part Time Lord has Deja vu, it usually means that something is messing with the time lines.'

'How so?' she asked, as he turned off the taps and opened the cubicle.

He hesitated as he thought about an example that held painful memories for his wife. 'Remember in the old universe, when I took you back to see your father.'

'Oh yeah,' she said quietly, remembering that terrible day as she wrapped a towel around her.

'Well, when we went back for the second try, the original me could feel us standing behind us . . . if you know what I mean.'

She smiled and stroked his cheek. 'Yeah, I know what ya mean. So what do you think it is then?'

He shrugged his shoulders as he finished securing the towel around his waist. 'Won't know that until it comes and slaps me in the face.'

He rubbed his cheek and remembered a previous slap in a previous life. 'Must try and come up with a different phrase for that.'

Rose laughed, and then looked at the bathroom door, as she heard someone rush into the bedroom on the other side. 'Who's there?'

'Mum?'

'Eyulf, what's the matter?' She could feel his distress, and the relief of hearing her voice. Had he been woken up by a nightmare? As she stepped into the bedroom, he hugged her tightly around her waist, almost pulling the towel off her.

'You're back,' he cried. 'You're back.'

John came out of the en suite and knelt down to be on the same level as his distraught son.

'Dad! You're back too,' he cried, hugging him around the neck.

'Hey, hey. I'm all wet,' John said, as he gently patted his back.

'I don't care. You're back,' he said again.

John could sense that this was the source of his Deja vu. 'Okay Son, calm down and tell me what's happened.'

'I've come back from the future to tell you not to go to work today.' He saw his parent's worried frowns. 'I'm sorry if I've broken the rules or somethin', but we lost you, and we couldn't feel you, and somethin' bad happened at the tower, and everybody was crying . . . and please don't go to work, you can't . . . you just can't.'

'What happened at Torchwood?' Rose asked in Field Agent mode, trying to ascertain the threat and formulate a response.

'Rose,' John said, giving her a warning look. Knowledge of future events could change your actions, cause you to make decisions that would cause a paradox. Hell, that might already have happened with his son coming back to warn them.

John held his son's shoulders and looked deep into his eyes. 'I promise son, we won't go into work today.' He looked up at Rose. 'Can you call Andy and ask him to do the Watch briefing, oh and call Alice so that she doesn't come to pick you up.'

'Yeah,' she nodded, and went over to the bedside table to reach her mobile.

'How did you get back here? Did anyone help you?' he asked his son, worried that he may not be able to get back on his own.

'I came on my own . . . except for the TARDIS of course, she helped me to get it right.'

'Okay son, let me throw some clothes on, and I'll walk you back to the TARDIS,' he said, rubbing himself with a towel and taking his clothes through to the bathroom.

Rose came over and knelt down so that they could hug, her wet strands of hair brushing the side of his face and neck. 'Thanks Sweetheart. I love you.' She wiped his wet cheek, and wiped a tear off her own cheek. 'Go on then, off you go. Rickey will be waking you up soon, and you don't want to bump into yourself.'

'Yeah,' he said, hugging her again around the neck. 'I love you Mum.'

John appeared from the bathroom a short while later, wearing blue jeans, white converse, and a black sweatshirt. He held his hand out for his son, and they quickly left the bedroom before anyone woke up.

Ten minutes later, John returned to the house, and found Rose in the kitchen wearing her faded blue jeans, white trainers and a baggy, grey T-shirt that hung off one shoulder. She was scrutinising her laptop, whilst Eyulf and Juleshka were sitting at the breakfast bar with her eating their bowls of cereal.

'What the HELL was all that about?' Rose asked as she looked up from the screen.

John walked towards her and wrapped his arms around her waist. 'That my love,' he started as he kissed her lips. 'Was our brilliant son. . .' He nibbled her ear. 'With the help of our brilliant TARDIS. . .' He kissed her neck. 'Saving our lives.'

'Will he be all right on his own?' She was worried about a six year old having to go through that ordeal.

'He'll be fine. If we stay at home, the events that he's experienced won't happen, and he won't ever have come back here,' John tried to explain.

'But shouldn't we warn someone, y'know, get them to evacuate Torchwood.'

'And tell them what? That something, but we don't know what, is going to happen, but we don't know when. Don't forget, crossing into established events is risky.'

She remembered the time when she had tried to save her father in the old universe, and it had not gone well. 'But EJ said somethin' bad happened at the tower, our friends will be there.'

'Okay, when you phone Andy, tell him we're following up on some new intelligence and that he should put the Watch onto amber alert. I'll phone Security and suggest they test their procedures today.'

'Oh that's brilliant, thank you.'

'There's no guarantee though that our phone calls don't initiate a chain of events that lead to the bad thing happening,' he told her.

'Oh don't. Yer doin' me head in.'

'I was only saying,' he said with a laugh as he left the kitchen. 'I'll go and get Jason.'

When he returned to the kitchen carrying Jason, he saw that Rose was still studying the Torchwood bulletin boards.

'Whatever you're looking for,' John said, not wanting to worry the children that something might be wrong. 'Won't potentially happen until after 10 o'clock.' That would have been the time when he would have arrived at work.

'Oh yeah,' Rose said sheepishly. 'Sorry.'

He smiled at her, and turned to Donna-The-Robot. 'A bowl of warm Ready Brek for this one please Donna.' He dipped Jason down to receive a kiss from Rose, before sitting him in his high chair at the end of the counter.

'So, are you two workin' from home today then?' Donna-The-Robot asked them, as she put the bowl of cereal on the high chair tray.

'Yeah, slight change of plan today,' Rose said, as she spooned the warm porridge into her son's mouth.

'Rose will monitor the Torchwood bulletin boards on her tablet, and I can work on a funding project in my workshop,' John told her.

* * *

Gwen O'Toole was on the Despatch Desk, collating data, and coordinating agents in the field. David Rea, one of the camera directors for the television production company, was filming her for the fly-on-the wall documentary called "Torchwood".

She was showing Craig Owens how to operate the high tech multimedia control desk, although it was like trying to teach her grandmother to suck eggs due to his background in a call centre. The viewing public had taken the new recruits to their hearts during their basic training, and were getting a lot of attention from the camera directors.

The other recruit, Amy Pond was being put through her paces on the Communications desk in the Despatch Office by Chrissie Anderson, and seemed to be doing quite well.

The Watch were on amber alert after Captain McNab received a phone call from John Smith. There were no details, just that he had received intelligence that there was a potential threat. Torchwood security had also been testing their procedures, and everyone seemed to be on edge.

'Right. I think these two need a break,' Julia said to Chrissie. 'Their brains must be scrambled with all this new stuff they're learning.'

Chrissie gave her a lopsided smile. 'What you mean is you could do with a cuppa.'

'Could I? That's very good of you Chief, mine's milk one sugar please,' Gwen said with a cheeky grin'

'Brilliant,' David said as he shrugged the camera off his shoulder. 'The viewers love this banter.'

Chrissie laughed and called out to the Standby Room. 'Pete, Danny. Would you relieve in Despatch while our trainees have some reflection time please?'

'No problem.'

'Be right with you.'

The new recruits went through to the kitchen area and poured themselves a cup of tea, before having a seat on one of the comfy sofas.

Members of the Watch started chatting to the new recruits in an attempt to get to know them and make them feel welcome. They had all been rookies themselves once, and remembered how a kind word and a bit of conversation had made them feel at home.

Andy McNab was in the glass fronted Supervisor's Office, which looked out over the Standby Room. He could see the multimedia status screens and the virtual wall to the New York Standby Room, which was empty at the moment. It would be around five A.M over there and he reckoned they were having a busy shift.

He smiled to himself as he saw his agents sitting with the rookies and chatting to them, trying to make them feel part of the team on their first proper day in the unit. Special Operations Field Agent had to be one of the most challenging jobs in Torchwood, different to a special forces soldier, but just as involved and varied.

Danny Walton had received a request for specialist support on the Communications Desk from Civil Aviation Authority, and fed that through to the status board. The multimedia screen "bonged" to alert the Standby Room that a "shout" had come in. Andy rose from his desk and checked the details on his tablet as he walked to the door.

'Two pilots at Stansted spooked by an unidentified craft that nearly collided with their airship on a flight from Dusseldorf. Who wants that one?' he called through the doorway.

Jake looked at Julia and she nodded. 'We'll take that one Boss,' he said as he finished his tea.

'Okay. Standard interview, descriptions and drawings. Radar logs and then back here to check satellite feeds.'

'No problem. See you later,' said Julia. She stood and finished her tea as well, taking the mugs and putting them in the sink of the kitchen area. Will Hustler picked up his camera gear and made ready to leave with them.

As they left Special Operations, Alice DiMaggio entered, looking for the shift supervisor.

'How was the interview?' Andy asked her as she approached.

'Interesting. The family doctor was right to call us. Adam Knight is an alien, but he doesn't know it.'

'Or he does know it and he's some kind of sleeper agent,' Andy suggested, thinking like a special forces soldier.

'I don't think so. I didn't get that impression from his adoptive mother. Adam's birth mother was very particular about who adopted her son. There was something about how she described Adam's birth mother.'

'And how was that?'

'I can't put my finger on it, but it's as though he was hidden here on Earth. I think we need to access the adoption records and see what we can find.'

Andy nodded and looked over at the sofas. 'Angel. Alice has some details here. She needs you and Andre to take a trip to the National Archives at Kew and check the adoption records. Stop off on the twelfth floor on the way out and get Legal to raise the paperwork.'

'Of course Captain.' Alice handed Angel a tablet PC with all the information on that she would need.

Andy frowned. 'Where is Andre anyway?'

'His scanner had an intermittent fault so he went to the equipment store to exchange it. Chris Greenwood went with him to film the procedure.'

'Okay, let Chris shadow you on this one.'

Angel smiled and nodded. 'I will see you later.'

* * *

It was late morning when John came up the stairs from his basement workshop. He found Rose in the living room, playing with Jason, and watching SKY NEWS. Her tablet was next to her on the sofa showing the Torchwood status.

'Anything happening?' he asked her, as he leaned over the back of the sofa and kissed her neck.

'No, it's all pretty ordinary so far. I wonder when it actually happened, whatever IT was?' she said.

'Well, I got the impression from my time sense when EJ was telling us about it, that it was mid morning . . . ish,' John said as he ran his fingers through his hair.

'So it looks like our genius son did it then,' she smiled.

'Yep. So how does lunch at the mansion sound?'

'Eh?' She wasn't expecting that.

'When I phoned Jackie to tell her we were working from home, she invited us over for lunch. I think she was looking forward to having Jason for the day, and you'll be able to coo over Lillie.'

'Oh yeah. That'll be nice.'

Rose grabbed the baby bag, John picked up Jason, and they made their way out of the front door.

'See ya later Donna,' Rose called out, as the door closed and they went down the steps to the paved area where the DeLorian was parked.

At the mansion, the two women swapped their bundles, as Jackie cuddled Jason, and Rose cuddled Lillie. The cook had prepared a beautiful lunch, where Jackie and Rose talked about the children, whilst John and Pete talked about Torchwood and the Tyler Foundation.

As everyone was making their way back to the sitting room, Jackie spotted something that Tony had left for John on the hall table. 'Oh John, I nearly forgot, would you be a love and have a look at a pair of goggles for Tony?' She picked them up and followed everyone into the room, handing a pair of futuristic, reflective Ray ban glasses to John.

'Ooh, these are high tech. Where did he get these from?' he asked.

'It was that asteroid market you took us to last week.'

'Oh, Tiaanamat,' Rose said, 'That was a brilliant day out.'

'Yeah, it was,' Jackie agreed. 'The little alien guy said they were vision enhancing, but he'd need someone to look at 'em to get 'em to work.'

John reached out his sonic screwdriver, and fiddled with the setting. 'Well, I've not seen anything like these before, but I'll have a look. I should be able to get them working.'

As the sonic whistled and warbled, he started talking to no one in particular. 'Never fails to amaze me y'know . . .'

'Eh, what does?' Rose asked, as she helped Jason with his bottle of juice.

'Nine hundred plus years, and I can still come across stuff I've never seen before. Ah, here we are, I think that's got it.' He put the glasses on and adjusted the controls on the side of the frames.

'What do they do?' Pete asked, as John looked around the room.

'Haven't a clue, but I'm sure I'll find out,' he said, as he adjusted a slider switch. As he looked at Rose and moved the slider back, her clothes started to fade, until she was sitting in her bra and knickers, with Jason just wearing a nappy.

'Ah, now I'm getting it.' He moved the slider back a fraction more, and his wife and son were naked. A mischievous grin spread across his face, which turned to a grimace as he looked at Jackie. He quickly returned his gaze back to his gorgeous wife. Yes, that was better.

'What can ya see?' she asked him with a smile.

'Everything,' he said absently, and then realised what he'd said. '. . . Is brighter and crisper. They must be for. . . artists.' He moved the slider a bit more, and Rose's skin disappeared. He was now looking at her musculature, and as he continued to move it back, he saw internal organs, blood vessels, and bones. He slid it forwards again, but not all the way, of course.

'Ah, I think they might be for a doctor or a medic. They're brilliant,' he said, still grinning at his naked wife.

'Let's have a look then,' Jackie said, holding out her hand for them.

'What? Oh, er, ah, hang on.' He adjusted the slider to muscle, and clicked it in place. 'There you are, have a look at that.'

Jackie put the glasses on and pulled a face. 'Oh my gawd. I can see yer insides.'

'Ooh, let's see,' Rose said, and put them on. 'Oh Mum, these are brilliant. Here Dad, have a look.'

Pete put them on, and the astonished look on his face made them laugh. 'Hah. Tony starts secondary school in September; these will be brilliant for his science subjects.'

As he looked at everyone in turn, blurry figures seemed to appear in the room. 'I think they need a bit of fine tuning,' is the last thing he said.


	5. Lambs to the slaughter

**Chapter 5**

Gwen O'Toole was back on the Despatch Desk, continuing to show Craig Owens how to operate the high tech multimedia control desk. It had been a fairly quiet morning so far. Jake and Julia were interviewing a pilot at Stansted Airport, who claimed that his flight had been put in jeopardy by an unidentified aircraft flying too close, and shining super bright anti collision lights into the cockpit.

The Civil Aviation Authority had investigated, and found no other aircraft in the vicinity of the alleged incident. It was their protocol to call Torchwood if there was a reported incident with no apparent explanation. Julia had radioed in to say that they had collected statements, radar logs, video footage from passengers, and were making their way back to base.

Angel and Andre were still out at the National Archive at Kew, gathering information on the birth mother of an adopted teenager who Alice DiMaggio had discovered was an alien.

Amy Pond was still getting to grips with the Communications desk in the Despatch Office, and under Chrissie's tutelage was doing really well. When Jake and Julia arrived, they gave their tablet PC's to Chrissie, and she showed Amy how to upload the radar data onto the Torchwood server.

She then showed her how to access the flight plan of the airship, and the archived satellite data from its flight path to see if they could track any unidentified craft in the area.

Andre and Angel returned with a folder of photocopied documents, and went to the Psychology Department to tell Alice what they had found . . . which wasn't much.

'What did you find out?' Alice asked as Andre handed over the folder.

'A young single mother, down on 'er luck, wanting zee best for 'er child,' Andre told her.

'Hmmm,' Alice hummed as she flicked through the documents. 'That's not the impression I got from his adoptive mother.'

'The case handler was a woman called Elizabeth Mcleod. She retired from the Adoption Service five years ago,' Angel informed her.

Alice frowned at one of the documents. 'It says here that the initial enquiry was made through an intermediary. I wonder who that was?'

'Maybe zee case handler would remember,' Andre suggested.

'Yes, I think we need to interview Elizabeth Mcleod. I'll go and see Chrissie and see if she can find her.'

In the Despatch Office, Amy was now learning how to monitor radio traffic from the Metropolitan Police Force. 'Chrissie?' she called out. 'I'm picking up radio traffic from the Met, about Tyler Mansion. Apparently all of their security has gone off line.'

'That's odd. I know John upgraded it to an intelligent system a few years ago. It has its own independent power back up.' She moved down the desk to Surveillance. 'Can you access any cameras in the vicinity?'

Amy typed in a string of commands. 'I can get to within half a mile, and then all the cameras are out of action.'

Chrissie hit the amber alert button. 'Gwen, contact the local constabulary, get a unit out there. Danny. Clive, sorry to interrupt your game, but I need you to tool up and get over to the Tyler's. Just make sure they're all right.'

'On our way.'

For the next half hour, Gwen continued to work the Despatch Desk, keeping a keen eye on the police reports. She knew something bad was going down, because the reports were brief, to the point, and lacked any detail.

['Agent Danny Walton to Torchwood Despatch declaring a code red at Tyler Mansion. Repeat, agent Danny Walton to Torchwood Despatch declaring a code red at Tyler Mansion. Over,'] Danny's emotional voice said urgently over the radio. Gwen's stomach did somersaults. Code red meant an extremely dangerous situation was developing, was occurring, or had already happened.

Craig Owens responded to the call. 'Torchwood Despatch, code red acknowledged. What is the nature of the emergency? Over.'

There was a pause before Danny spoke again. ['Craig, is Gwen available?]

'I'm here Danny,' Gwen said, taking over the conversation. If Danny wanted to speak to an experienced agent it was going to be bad.

['Gwen . . . it's a massacre here.']

Gwen fought to keep her voice professional and under control. 'Er, how many casualties? Over.'

There was another long pause. ['There's, er, I . . . I don't know if I can do this.'] During his time at Torchwood, Danny had seen some sights, but nothing had prepared him for what he was seeing now. Before Torchwood, he had been an office clerk at GCHQ in Cheltenham, and the worst thing he'd seen there was a bad hair day after an office party.

Clive Simpson on the other hand, had been a police officer, and had more experience of witnessing grisly scenes. ['Gwen, it's Clive . . . We manually winched the gates open, and gained access to the house through the kitchen. We found two bodies in the kitchen; one I believe is the cook.']

Gwen couldn't believe what she had just heard. This couldn't be happening, it just couldn't.

['We started a search of the ground floor and found seven bodies in the sitting room. Pete and Jackie Tyler.'] There was another long pause. ['Gwen, do you know where Alice DiMaggio is at this time? Is she able to hear this transmission?'] Clive asked.

What? Gwen was still struggling to take in the fact that the former director of Torchwood and his wife were dead. Clive's question had caught her off guard.

'Er, no. She is not able to hear this tran . . .' And then it hit her. The reason Clive didn't want her to hear this transmission. Tears started to well in her eyes and overflow down her cheeks.

'No, no, no Clive. Please. Don't say it. Please,' she cried.

['Jeez,'] Clive said to himself through his tears. ['The, er, house manager . . . Alistair McKenzie, and . . .']

'NO! Don't you dare! Don't you dare tell me that!' she shouted.

['. . . Their daughter,'] he whispered.

Gwen sobbed, and felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up and saw the blurry face of Stuart Sinclair. 'I'll take it from here Babe.'

He took the headset from her, as Pete Davies helped her over to the couch in the Standby Room, and gave her a cup of strong, sweet coffee.

The former soldier took control of the situation. 'Clive, it's Stuart. You said seven bodies in the sitting room, is that correct?'

['Yeah,'] he said, drawing in a breath. ['There's more bad news. The other bodies are Doctor John Smith, his wife, Rose . . . and their youngest son, Jason.']

'Oh God no.'

* * *

Tony Tyler was enjoying his lunch with his friends in the school dining hall. They were laughing and joking about all the things that ten year old boys and girls find funny. The dessert was rhubarb and apple crumble with custard, and he had nearly finished his, when his class teacher and the headmistress approached.

'Hello Tony, did you enjoy your dinner?' his teacher asked.

He looked up and saw a sad smile on her face. A smile that wanted to cry. 'Er, yes Miss. It was very nice.'

'Good. We need you to come through to the headmistress's office for a moment.'

'Am I in trouble?' he asked, as he saw a police constable and a woman police constable at the door to the hall.

The headmistress had seen where his gaze was directed, and stepped forwards to reassure him. 'No Tony, you're not in trouble. Those officers just want to talk to you about . . . a delicate and private matter.'

In the headmistress's office, the woman police constable from the Victim Support Unit broke the news as gently as she could. It was never going to be easy though, how do you tell a ten year old child that their parents, sister, and brother in law have been murdered.

Tony was sitting on the office sofa, where his teacher had her arm around his shoulders, both weeping quietly. There was a gentle knock at the door, and the male officer opened the door and put his head through the gap.

'Could you tell the headmistress that a relative has come to see Tony,' the school secretary said.

The officer looked back into the room, towards the headmistress who was sitting at her desk. 'Apparently, there is a relative of Tony's here to see him.'

'Really, I wonder who that is.'

She didn't have to wait long to find out. A man in an RAF uniform and grey coat pushed past the secretary and entered the room.

'Captain Jack Harkness. I'm Tony's uncle and he's coming with me.'

'UNCLE JACK,' Tony cried, and ran to hug him around the waist.

'I'm afraid you can't do that,' the male constable told him, which was a very brave (or foolish) thing to say.

Jack took his Torchwood ID out of his pocket and held it in front of the constable's face. 'We have several victims of a ruthless crime; all the indications are of a professional hit. For all we know, everyone in this school might be at risk if they come for him,' Jack said nodding down at Tony.

'Now you can call Bill Jenkins for confirmation if you wish.' He saw the puzzled look on the officer's face. 'You know, William Jenkins, the metropolitan police commissioner. Or, if that's not good enough for you, you can call the president. I've got the direct line number on my mobile.'

The constable looked to his colleague for support. 'Er, I'll have to call this in.'

Jack gave him a humourless smile. 'You do that. Meanwhile, I'm taking this young man into protective custody.' He unwrapped Tony's arms from around him, and put a protective arm around his shoulders. 'Come on Tony, Julia and Jake are waiting outside.'

He quickly ushered Tony down the school corridors and out of the front entrance. His right hand was in the pocket of his grey coat, gripping his revolver. His eyes were scanning the street, and the buildings opposite. Jake and Julia were standing either side of the black Range Rover, also scanning the immediate environment.

There was a sudden bang and rumble, and the three agents reacted. Jack pulled Tony to him and shielded him with his own body. Two SA80 assault rifles snapped up and pointed in the direction of the noise.

The school caretaker, who was standing beside a big, round wheelie bin, squealed and raised his hands. 'Don't shoot! Please, I was just tidyin' out the rubbish . . . Honest.'

The team didn't relax, that would be the time when a real threat would be most likely to occur. Instead, Jake kept his rifle raised, and Julia opened the rear door of the car, so that Jack could bundle Tony inside. Jack got in after him and closed the door, while Julia went around the other side and got in, sandwiching Tony in the middle. She handed her rifle to Jack, and enveloped Tony in a comforting hug.

Jake cautiously retreated around the front of the car, and climbed into the driver's seat. He started the engine, floored the accelerator and sped off towards Canary Wharf. A couple of minutes into the journey, Jack's mobile phone rang. The caller display said Torchwood.

'Harkness,' Jack said into the phone.

'Jack, its Stuart. The extraction team we sent to collect Eyulf and Juleshka have reported in. They have Juleshka, who already seems to know that something bad has happened, but Eyulf is nowhere to be found.'

'What! How could he go missing in a classroom, where the hell could he go?' Jack asked in disbelief.

'Angel and Andre have interviewed his teacher, who could remember John dropping the kids off, she can remember him being there for registration, but after that, she has no recollection of seeing him in the class.'

'No recollection?' Jack asked.

'Yeah, she's really upset. She says she didn't forget he should have been there, it was more like she didn't realise that he should have been there,' Stuart explained.

Hmm. It's almost like a perception filter, Jack mused.

'And it gets weirder boss. Craig and Pete reviewed the CCTV footage from the school cameras, and found Eyulf with a group of kids in a corridor, only from one frame to the next, Eyulf changes into a different kid.'

* * *

The TARDIS paradox avoidance algorithm, took Eyulf back to the basement of his home, immediately after he had left with his grandfather, his uncle Jack, and the Torchwood agents. To all intents and purposes, the TARDIS hadn't moved at all.

Inside the TARDIS, Eyulf was trying to work out what to do next. He may only have been six years old, but his Gallifreyan brain was wired for time and space, and he knew something hadn't gone as it should. He knew it had worked though, because he could feel the warmth of his parents love.

Once he had warned his parents not to go to Torchwood, and returned to the TARDIS, the timeline should have changed. He should now be at school, blissfully unaware that anything had happened. Instead, he was standing at the console, examining the view screen, wondering how he was going to get back into established events.

Dad will know, he decided, and left the TARDIS to go upstairs to find him.

'MUM, DAD?' he shouted down the hallway.

Donna-The-Robot's visual interface popped around the living room door. 'Eyulf, back again? Shouldn't you be at school?'

'Oh, hi Donna,' he said, and then thought about her question. 'Yeah, I should be at school, which is why I need to talk to Dad.'

He realised that no one had answered his call, and a feeling of dread started to creep up on him. 'Donna, where are Mum and Dad?'

Dad had promised that they wouldn't go into work, he promised. Had the terrible thing happened, and they'd gone in to help, or had something else happened that made them break their promise?

'They've gone over to your grandparents for lunch,' she told him.

He breathed a sigh of relief as he realised that they had kept their promise, only to have that relief snatched away as he felt their warm presence vanish in an instance.

'NO! They can't go. I saved them, they didn't go into work. I saved them.' Tears ran down his cheeks as he started to cry.

Donna-The-Robot put a comforting, mechanical hand on his shoulder. 'Eyulf, what's the matter?'

'Donna, can you call Mum and Dad on their mobiles please, I need to talk to them.'

'Of course Sweetheart, just give me a second.' Donna accessed her internal modem and dialled John's number. The call went unanswered, so she dialled Rose's number. When that wasn't answered, she tried Pete and Jackie's mobile numbers as well, and she got an unobtainable signal on the mansion landline number.

'I'm sorry Eyulf; I don't seem to be able to contact anyone at the mansion.'

He began to sob, and Donna wrapped her hard arms around him, trying to comfort him as best she could.

'Why can't I save them? Why won't the universe let me save them?' he asked out loud.

'What d'ya mean?' Donna asked him.

'Er, nothing.' He disentangled himself from the hug and wiped the tears from his cheeks. He was getting used to this now. 'I've got to go now.'

'But EJ, you can't go wanderin' about out there on yer own.'

'I'm not. I'm going to the TARDIS. I need to go back to the past again and talk to Dad.'


	6. Groundhog Day again

**Chapter 6**

There was a gentle rattle of milk bottles from the milk float, as it hummed its way around the corner from Talbot Road, into Northumberland Place. The established events progressed along the timeline as they had done previously.

John and Rose enjoyed an early morning recreational shower, as the milk was delivered at the front door. Eyulf ran into the house, and warned his parents not to go into work. John walked him back down the street, and saw him safely into the TARDIS, where he set the coordinates to return him to the exact point from where he came from.

The family had their breakfasts, and John phoned Jackie to tell her about the change of plan, before taking Eyulf and Juleshka to school. Jackie invited them over for lunch, and he said he would mention it to Rose.

The DeLorian parked itself in front of the house, and John got out. He heard footsteps running down the street towards him.

'DAD!' a familiar voice called out. 'Dad, It didn't work . . . it didn't work,' Eyulf cried, as he hugged his father around the waist.

John put comforting hands on his son's back and his head. 'What do you mean "it didn't work"? We're not going into work, so how can it still happen?'

'It happens at Grandma and Grumpies instead. Donna told me that you went over for lunch,' he said between sobs.

'Donna told you . . . but how? When I sent you back, you should have reverted to the original timeline. You should have been at school.' John realised that something was manipulating the timelines, and his son was trapped outside of established events.

'I know, but I was in the basement, and I could feel you and Mum, and you weren't there, and I thought you'd gone to work, and Donna told me you'd gone to Grandma's, and then you went away again,' he said, his words falling over themselves to try and be spoken.

'Okay, calm down Son. I think we need to go to the TARDIS so that I can have a look at the settings and try and sort this out.'

They walked down Northumberland Place, and turned the corner into Talbot Road. The TARDIS was parked on the pavement, in front of the low wall of a regency style house. They went inside, and made their way up the ramp to the console. John switched on the view screen, and started by looking at the TARDIS configuration. Eyulf sat up on the jump seat and watched.

'Hello,' John said with a frown. 'Why is all that Artron energy being routed through the extrapolator shielding?' He tapped a few keys, adjusted some levers, and pushed a button. 'Its warping the Chronon shell. You've put yourself into a time bubble,' he said to the Time Rotor. 'Why would you do that? Why would you stop EJ from returning to his original timeline?'

He ran his fingers through his hair, rubbed the back of his neck, and tugged his ear, as he turned towards his son, deep in thought. Eyulf sat there, swinging his legs, waiting for his brilliant father to fix everything. John saw the look of belief, trust, and expectation in his son's eyes, and didn't know if he deserved all of that.

He then felt the apologetic, almost sheepish hum of the TARDIS in his head. He was right that the TARDIS was responsible for keeping EJ out of the current timeline, but that was not her intention, it was more of an unavoidable side effect.

And then it hit him, and he hit his forehead with his palm. 'Oh, of course! It isn't about EJ,' he said grinning at his son, and then turning to look up at the Time Rotor. 'It's about you, isn't it, and the historical data logs that you have from the alternate time lines.'

He turned back to his puzzled son. 'You see son, something keeps trying to kill me and your mum, and it seems that no matter how you try to prevent it, that something is still out there waiting for us.'

Tears started to fill his son's eyes. 'Does that mean that you're goin' to die?'

John smiled at him and ruffled his messy hair. 'Nah, not yet. There's plenty of years left in this body. All I have to do is find out what wants to kill us and stop it.'

'Oh that simple huh?' he said with a lopsided grin that was a mirror of his father's grin. He may still have been upset about something trying to make him an orphan, but his father's confidence was infectious.

'I wouldn't say simple, more like difficult . . . Well, more complicated than difficult . . . Well . . .' John rambled on.

'Dad?'

'What?'

EJ pointed to the console behind him. 'The data logs?'

'Eh? Oh yeah, right.' John turned around and started to examine the next few hours that had already happened to him in the alternate time lines.

From various surveillance cameras and other sources, he saw Rose leave with Alice, and travel to Canary Wharf. He saw himself take EJ and Juleshka to school, and take Jason to Tyler Mansion. He then saw himself drive to Torchwood Tower, and park the DeLorian in the underground car park.

He followed his usual routine, and went to Special Operations, where he snogged the shift supervisor before she brought him up to speed with any latest developments. Will Hustler, one of the camera directors, had a big smile on his face and seemed very pleased with that footage for the show. He then went to his workshop laboratory in the Science and Technology Department on the tenth floor.

Everything seemed so normal and routine, until everything went black. 'Ah, here we go then,' he said, and rewound the data to the second before blackout. Rose was sitting on the edge of her desk, looking up from her tablet PC and talking to Andy McNab through the open door of her glass fronted office. Danny and Clive were sitting on the sofas, playing Halo as they waited for a call out.

Gwen was sitting at the Despatch Desk, with Craig Owens and a team of communications technicians, whilst Pete and Stuart were over by the dining area which was divided from the kitchen by a worktop with cabinets underneath. He checked his workshop camera and saw that he was wearing a pair of reflective Ray ban goggles, and looking at his hand with interest. He presumed it was an artefact that had been brought in overnight.

Everything seemed so normal. Except . . . John was looking at the scan data of the various sensors dotted around Torchwood, and watched the "virtual window" feed to Torchwood New York. He adjusted the brightness and contrast of the screen, put his glasses on and studied the final image.

Blurry, humanoid shadows seemed to be all over the Standby Room, one for every person there. In fact, there seemed to be a blurry humanoid for everyone in the tower. It reminded him of the Cybermen forcing their way through the breach in the old universe.

There was an increase in electromagnetic energy, and then everything went off line. 'Hmmm, looks like an EM pulse took out all the electrics prior to the attack.'

The next set of data he had, was from the DeLorian as it drove through the car park. He looked over to Eyulf on the jump seat. 'Was that your idea to use the DeLorian?'

Eyulf nodded. 'Uh-huh.'

John smiled at him proudly. 'Brilliant.' He saw the body of the security guard, and looked at the wound to his head. That data ended, and then he had the spy flies and helmet cameras. Everyone was in the positions they were in when the screen went black. He saw his wife's legs sticking out from behind the desk, and switched the screen off. He didn't need to see that.

'Okay,' he said, rubbing his hand down his face in an attempt to wipe away that last image. 'Let's see what happens when you give us the warning.'

From the external security camera, he watched as the milkman delivered the milk, and grinned as he thought about what he and Rose were doing at the time. He saw EJ run from the street, up the steps, and into the house. Several minutes later, he left the house with EJ, holding his hand and taking him back to the TARDIS. Once again, it seemed so normal. He couldn't see anyone out of the ordinary watching them or the house.

He ran the recording forward at speed, and saw himself carry Jason to the car and fasten him into his car seat. Rose put the baby bag in the back, and sat in the passenger seat. They drove away, and again, no one was watching or following.

The next footage was from the mansion security cameras, and he saw them arrive, enter the house, and walk down the hallway into the sitting room. Minutes later, he saw Helen the nanny, walk down the hallway from the kitchen into the sitting room, and the cook wheeled a trolley of food into the dining room.

Everyone came out of the sitting room, and went into the dining room for lunch. Occasionally, staff would walk up and down the hallway as they went about their daily duties. After lunch, everyone came back into the hallway and into the sitting room. Except for Jackie who went to the hall table, picked up something, and followed them in.

A few minutes later, the screen went dark. After that, there were the harrowing radio messages from Danny and Clive, and news reports from a police cordon outside the gates to the mansion.

['. . . Police have confirmed that a number of bodies have been found on the premises with gunshot wounds, but refuse to confirm whether any of them are members of the Tyler family. We can only speculate as to the motive for this attack. Was it a bungled robbery, kidnapping, or was it to do with Pete Tyler's past history with Torchwood, Vitex, or Cybus Industries? This is . . .']

John turned off the monitor and stared at the Time Rotor. Two professional hits on Rose and himself, at different places and at different times. Why? What was the motive, what was the catalyst, and who were the perpetrators? Nothing he had seen in the build up to the attacks had given him any clues, except for the blurry figures just before Torchwood went off line.

'Right then Son, let's see what we can do about stopping this once and for all,' he said as he started the Time Rotor.

'Where we going?' Eyulf asked.

'Home,' he said with a warm smile. He landed the TARDIS at the side of the swimming pool in the transdimensional, basement extension.

He knelt down on one knee, and gave his son a comforting hug. 'I need you to be a good boy and stay in the TARDIS all day. You've got toys in the playroom, snacks and drinks in the kitchen. I'll keep popping in to see how you are, and I'll come and make some lunch.'

'Okay Dad, I'll do anything to stop this from happening,' he said sincerely.

'Good lad.' John stood, and adjusted some of the controls on the console before walking down the ramp to the doors. As he opened the door, he looked back, gave a small wave, a waggle of his eyebrows, and left the TARDIS.

Half way up the stairs from the basement, Donna-The-House spoke. 'John, what's goin' on? I saw you arrive in the DeLorian, go down the street, and then arrive in a second TARDIS in the Gymnasium.'

'Ah, yeah, right. . . Listen Donna, I need you to keep this to yourself. My family are in danger and I need to sort it.'

There was an electronic gasp from the ceiling speaker. 'Is there anything I can do?'

He thought about this as he reached the top of the stairs. 'Actually, yes there is. EJ is in the second TARDIS, I need you to interface with her and keep an eye on him for me.'

'No problem. Leave it to me.'

'Oh, and not a word to Rose. If she knew about this, it could cause a paradox.' For all he knew, he may already have caused one, and Reapers could be appearing any minute now.

He went along the hall, and found Rose in the living room, playing with Jason whilst keeping an eye on the Torchwood bulletin boards.

'Oh, hi Love. I didn't hear you come back. Did you see him back all right?' Rose said, giving him a worried look.

'Yeah, he was fine. Once the TARDIS dematerialised, he would revert to the original time line and have no knowledge of what happened,' he lied. He wanted to try and protect her from the knowledge of what could happen next.

'Did I hear the TARDIS just now?' she asked him, sensing that something wasn't quite right.'

'Er, yeah. I was testing the TARDIS app on my phone. After what EJ told us, I want to be ready for anything,' he told her.

'Ooh, good idea . . . but you don't think anything will still happen do you?' Rose said, glancing at the status reports on her tablet, and holding Jason just that little bit tighter.

'Nah,' he said dismissively. 'But it's always good to be prepared. Oh, by the way, your mother invited us over for lunch when I phoned, but I think it's probably best if we stay here for the day.'

'Yeah, okay. I'll give her a call and let her know.'

'Right. I'm going down to my workshop. Give me a shout if you need anything.' He kissed her on the lips, and then made his way to his workshop in the basement.

Once in his workshop, he went straight to the original TARDIS that was standing in the corner. 'Right then young lady, let's make this house the safest place in the universe.'

He had already extended the extrapolator shielding in the second TARDIS, and now he was adjusting this TARDIS's shields to resonate with the other to surround the house in a protective shield. If anyone tried to attack them in their home, the extrapolator shield would neutralise any weapon.

It was late morning when John came up the stairs from his basement workshop. He found Rose in the living room, still playing with Jason, and watching SKY NEWS. Her tablet was next to her on the sofa showing the Torchwood status.

'Anything happening?' he asked her, as he leaned over the back of the sofa and kissed her neck.

'Nah, it's all pretty ordinary so far. I wonder when it actually happened, whatever IT was?' she said.

John knew that the time had already passed, but he couldn't tell Rose that in case it caused a paradox. 'Well, I got the impression from my time sense when EJ was telling us about it, that it was mid morning . . . ish.'

'So it looks like our genius son did it then,' she smiled.

'Yep. So far, so good. It looks like whatever happened may have depended on decisions we made. Let's not get complacent though. Don't forget, we've changed the timeline, so it may have changed someone's plans.'

'Oh, talkin' of changin' plans, Mum and Dad said they'd come to us for lunch if that's all right,' she said with a sheepish smile.

"If that's all right?" John thought to himself. Crazed assassins on the loose, and the in laws want to come for lunch? Oh wasn't that just wizard! Of course, he realised, Rose wasn't aware that the threat had moved in the "alternate" alternate time line.

'Do you think that's wise Love? Like I said, we may have changed someone's itinerary. Maybe we should minimise the risks for today and act as though we are under siege. I mean, if it does revolve around us, you wouldn't want anything to happen to your parents, would you?'

Rose pouted and frowned as she thought about what he'd said. 'I hadn't thought about that. Yeah, you're right. I'll give Mum a call and tell her we're doin' some delicate research and need some privacy.'

'I know what Jackie will think we're up to,' John said with a cheeky smile.

'John!' Rose said, blushing. Then she thought about it and laughed. 'Yeah, you're right.'

Rose took out her mobile phone, and called her mum's mobile number. She explained the change of plan, and told her that they would be back to their normal routine tomorrow. She smiled to herself as her mum asked if, "delicate research" was what they were calling it these days.

While Rose was telling Jackie about the change of plans, John breathed a sigh of relief as he felt a subtle change in the timeline. He knew that the second TARDIS which had been parked near the swimming pool was no longer there, and EJ would be back at school, blissfully unaware that anything bad had ever happened.


	7. On the trail of an alien mother

**Chapter 7**

In a modest, red brick town house, near the sea front in Newhaven, Alice DiMaggio sat on a comfortable armchair in a living room that was typical of of someone who was of retirement age. The furnishings were contemporary, and the photograph on the mantelpiece was of a couple in their sixties.

'Thank you for agreeing to see me Mrs Mcleod,' Alice said as she accepted a cup of tea.

'Oh don't be silly dear. I relish the chance to have a bit of company these days since Derek passed away . . . and please, call me Liz.'

'Okay Liz. Was Derek your husband?' Alice asked, looking to the photograph and the smiling man with his arm around Liz.

'Yes. Forty two years we were married,' Liz said with a far away look in her eyes.

'You must miss him.'

'Yes, but life goes on,' Liz said whimsically. Anyway, you said on the phone that you wanted to discuss an adoption I was involved in?'

'Yes, that's right. It's a bit of a long shot, it was fourteen years ago.'

'Oh, right. Well that'll test the old grey cells,' Liz said with a laugh. 'Do you have a name?'

'Erica and Lloyd Knight, and the child was named Adam.'

Liz frowned in thought. 'There have been so many over the years. It's difficult to recall each individual case.'

'I knew it was a long shot, but this one was a little unusual. The adoption records say that the initial contact was made by an intermediary . . . a young woman friend of the mother.'

'Was the mother foreign by any chance?' Liz asked. 'Eastern European?'

'The records don't specify. I presumed she was British as the adoption was in this country. I have a name of Isabella Hough. I suppose if you spell the surname with two "f"s, then that could be European. Why do you ask?'

'Well, there was this one mother, vivid green eyes she had. Like emeralds. Very particular about who would adopt her son.'

Alice consulted her tablet PC. 'Erica said something similar. "She wasn't so much giving her baby away, as entrusting him into our care".'

'Yes, that was it. There were rich couples, professionals, couples with aspirations. But she chose an ordinary couple with ordinary jobs in an ordinary house on an ordinary street.'

'Lloyd Knight has worked in the same laboratory, in the same hospital for years, with no apparent desire to move.'

Liz smiled at the memory. 'Settled and contented. That's what she wanted, settled and contented rather than rich and ambitious.'

'It sounds like the woman I'm looking for. Why did she use an intermediary, was there a language problem?'

'I don't think so. She had an unusual accent, but spoke and understood English. There was something about her. Nothing that made her stand out from the crowd, but . . .'

'A sad nobility?' Alice ventured. 'And a sad, haunted look in her eyes?'

'How did you know?'

'That was how Erica Knight described her. The intermediary, can you remember anything about her?'

'Oh, it was a good few years ago now my dear. I remember she was young . . . a teenager. What was her name? Linda? Lizzie?'

Alice put the two names together, and realised that she had heard the name connected to this enquiry. 'Would it have been Lyndsey?'

Liz thought about it. 'You know, it could have been, yes . . . Yes, now I think about it, it was. Lyndsey.'

* * *

Rose laughed as she watched John having some father and son time with Jason on the rug. She took on the role of the announcer. 'And Jason the Argonaut has the Doctor on the mat . . . or the rug. Can he pin him down for the count of three? One . . . two . . .'

John lifted his arm vertically in the air. Jason chuckled and wrapped his arms around his father's, trying to force it back down. John pretended to be overcome by superior strength. At this point, Ricky the Cyberdog decided he wanted to join the fun, and climbed onto John's abdomen.

'Hey, I didn't know it was a tag match,' he laughed.

'One . . . two . . . three. And the Argonaut wins,' Rose declared. 'The new, undisputed, baby weight champion of the world. And the crowd go wild.'

Donna-The-House played the sound of an arena cheering through her speakers before announcing that lunch was ready.

'Ooh, what have we got?' John asked.

'Ploughman's style sandwiches on crusty bread, with a selection of cheeses and pickles. How's that sound?' her voice asked from the ceiling.

'Very "pub lunch",' John said with a laugh and picked up his son to tickle him.

Sitting at the dining room table, Rose bit into her crusty bread roll, and then fed a spoonful of pureed food to Jason in his high chair.

'So, I wonder what it could have been that triggered the attack at the Tower?' Rose asked as she swallowed her ploughman's.

"And at the mansion" John thought to himself. 'We may never know,' he replied as he took another bite. 'Or . . .' he started. Did he really want to worry his wife with this thought.

But the thought had already occurred to Rose. 'Or, it could happen again tomorrow when we go back in.'

'Ah, so you'd already spotted that possibility.'

'Yeah, kinda hard to miss when you are worryin' about it on all channels. John, we can't live our lives lookin' over our shoulders.'

'I know. What have I always told you? Knowledge about your future is dangerous.'

'So what can we do about it?'

'After lunch, we'll go to your office and log on to the Torchwood server and review all of today's reports . . .'

'. . . And see if we can find a hidden threat,' Rose finished for him.

'Exactly!'

* * *

Alice pushed the doorbell to the side of the Knight family's front door, and it gently "bonged" the chimes of Big Ben. Erica Knight opened the door and looked at first concerned, and then hid her concern with a welcoming smile.

'Hello again Alice. Is there a problem? Have you some news about Adam?'

Alice smiled and raised her hands in a placating gesture. 'No, It's fine Erica. I'm still building a profile of Adam's psyche, and to help me do that, it would be useful to talk to some of the people he interacts with. He mentioned a girl, what was her name? Lyndsey?'

'Oh yes, Lyndsey. That's a good idea.'

'Do you know where she lives by any chance?'

'I'm afraid I don't. In fact, I don't even know her surname. All I know is that she is in the same year as Adam. Maybe the school would be able to help you. Although the school is closed to pupils today, I believe the teachers are there doing training.'

'Are they. Maybe I'll give them a try then. Thank you for your help.'

'No, thank you for your help. None of the other psychologists seemed to go to this much trouble. It's nice to know that Adam has finally found someone who may be able to help him.'

'Oh I really hope I can help him Erica,' Alice said. "I really do," she thought to herself.

Alice drove down the driveway of the high school, and parked in the large car park in front of a modern, red brick, two story building. It was surrounded by fields and trees, and was very pleasant, Alice thought.

She went through the front entrance and found the secretary's office just to the left of the main doors, where there was a reception window.

A woman looked up from her desk, smiled and went to the window, sliding it open. 'Hello. Can I help you? I'm afraid the school is closed today for teacher training.'

Alice held up her Torchwood I.D. 'My name is Alice DiMaggio. I'm a psychologist from the Torchwood Institute, and I'm conducting a psychological assessment of one of the pupils here. I know I don't have an appointment, but I was wondering if the headmaster could give me ten minutes of his time . . . if it's not too much trouble.'

The school secretary seemed a little irritated by this unexpected intrusion to what was supposed to be a quiet day. 'I'll call his office and see if he's available.'

'That's very kind. Thank you,' Alice said with a charming smile.

David Grainger was a large, friendly man, who was obviously used to speaking to people and putting them at their ease. A useful skill for a headmaster who would have to talk to parents, governors and official inspectors Alice thought.

'So Miss DiMaggio, how can I help you? We have a few students here who have special needs. Which one in particular are you interested in?'

'Please, call me Alice. And can I just say thank you for agreeing to see me without an appointment, I know how important training is to maintain standards. The pupil I'm assessing is Adam Knight.'

'Adam . . . Really?' Grainger said in surprise. 'I wouldn't have considered him a problem. A bit withdrawn and lacking social skills, but he's bright and always performs well in his academic studies.'

'Yes, I know there is nothing wrong with his intellect, but it's his lack of social skills that his parents are concerned about. They are worried that it may lead to depression and mental illness. I mean, many geniuses in the past have lacked the social skills they needed to help them integrate into normal society. With my help, I think I can teach him those skills.'

'Well, I'm all for that Alice. What can I do to help?'

'Well. Apparently, he has recently become friends with a young girl called Lyndsey. I'm afraid I don't know her surname, but if I could speak to her, she could help Adam with those social skills.'

'Good idea. Hang on, I'll get the secretary to check the register. Maybe we could set up a meeting for you one of the days this week.'

Ten minutes later, Grainger returned with a puzzled frown on his face. 'You say this Lindsey is in year nine, the same as Adam?'

'Yes. Her mother was certain of it. Why, is there a problem?'

Grainger scratched his head. 'Well, you could say that. You see, there is no Lyndsey in year nine. Lots of "Emilys", "Madisons", "Haileys", and "Hannahs". We tend to see trends in popular names, depending on which celebrities are in the media at the time. But there is no Lyndsey.'

'Oh,' Alice said in surprise. 'Maybe it was year eight then, or year ten.'

'Yeah, I thought that, so I checked. Whoever this Lyndsey is, she isn't at this school in year eight, nine, or ten.'

* * *

The screen on Rose's computer was a dark blue background, with a white 'T' made of hexagons in a white box. To the right of the small box were the name and the words:

 **TORCHWOOD**

 **secure_extranet: log in.**

 **/TORCHWOOD HUB/NODE: 01.**

In the active window were the words:

 **TORCHWOOD SECURE LOGON**

 **Enter Username And Password:**

Rose entered here username and current password.

 **Status: Live/Examining security protocols_**

 **Connected:_TW_01.0_Canary_Wharf_**

 **Data Logged_Authorisation_ by_Jack_Harkness_**

'Okay, let's access the Watch's mission reports and see what's been happening,' Rose said as she typed in the commands.

'Actually, check the Green Watch reports from last night as well. They may have encountered something dangerous or brought in an artefact,' John suggested.

'Good point.'

She accessed the reports and John put on his "brainy" specs to speed read the pages. He was able to read whole pages at a glance.

'Hah! That's a good one. A chap found some Cyberman parts left over from 2007 and tried to assemble them in his garden shed.'

'Seriously? What an idiot. Doesn't he remember how dangerous they were?'

John gave a single laugh as he read the next part of the report. 'He told the police he wanted to build a home help for his wife, but they suspect he wanted it to malfunction and kill her for the recently purchased life insurance.'

'That sounds like a plot from a T.V drama . . . Anything else?'

'The usual unidentified flying objects that Green Watch have now identified. Assisting the police at a scene of crime . . . and that's it.'

'Okay. Let's try Blue Watch and see what they've been up to today.'

'It looks like the Watch have had a quiet shift so far,' John told her. 'Jake and Julia went out to Stansted to interview a couple of pilots.'

Rose started to read the second report. 'Angel and Andre went to the National Archive to get some information for Alice . . . I wonder what that's all about?'

'Follow the link to Psychology, see what Alice's report says,' John suggested. 'Oh, now this is more like it. A fourteen year old boy who doesn't know he's an alien.'

'Oh yeah. I could make up all sorts of conspiracy theories about that,' Rose told him.

'Yeah,' John said distractedly. He was remembering the view of the alternate timeline from the TARDIS, and how he'd been looking at a pair of high tech specs. They hadn't been brought in overnight or this morning, and he knew they weren't in the archive, because they had recently performed a stock take.

He doubted they had anything to do with the attacks, because they wouldn't have been at the Tyler Mansion when the timeline changed again. No, the attacks had something to do with him or Rose, as they were the only two constants in both timelines.

'I wonder how stayin' at home has prevented an attack on Torchwood?'

'That, my wife,' John said, kissing her on the lips. 'Is a very good question.'

* * *

Alice Dimaggio walked out of the school entrance and headed towards her car. As she approached, she noticed there was a figure leaning against the radiator grill of the Torchwood Range Rover, wearing jeans and a hoodie pulled up over their head.

She hesitated and stood still, wondering if she should go back into the school. There was no one about in the car park, and she felt quite vulnerable and exposed. The figure however, made the decision for her.

'Alice Dimaggio?' the figure called out. It was the voice of a young woman.

Alice wasn't a Special Operations Field Agent, and was under no illusion that if this stranger attacked her, she wouldn't stand a chance. But Alice was a criminal psychologist who was very good at her job. It didn't take a genius to work out who the stranger was, who had told her she was here, and for what purpose.

'You must be Adam's friend Lyndsey.'

The figure pushed off from the radiator grill and lowered the hood to reveal a teenage girl with a shock of red hair and emerald eyes.

'Oh, I'm more than his friend,' the girl said mysteriously.

'Hmm, I bet you are. You age well, I'll give you that,' Alice replied.

Lyndsey looked stunned. 'Pardon me?'

'Well, you were a teenage girl, fourteen years ago when Adam was adopted. You don't seem to have aged a day.'

'You don't understand,' Lyndsey told her, ignoring the comment about her age. 'Adam is in danger, and you need to stop asking questions.'

'In danger how?' Alice asked.

'If you continue to ask questions, then it won't only be Adam who will be in danger. We are so close now. Please, stop asking questions.' Lyndsey turned and jogged away across the car park.

'What is so close?' Alice called to Lyndsey's retreating back.

She frowned as Lyndsey ran towards the perimeter fence of the school grounds, and then gasped as she cleared the two metre high fence in a single bound.


	8. Torchwood Despatch Code Red

**Chapter 8**

Donna-The-House gently beeped the alarm clock in the master bedroom, and Rose stirred from her pleasant slumber. She could feel her husband spooning her from behind with his arm around her waist. She reached behind her and gently ran her fingers through his great hair.

'Mornin' Love,' she whispered, as she felt him rub his body against hers.

He tightened his grip around her waist and kissed the side of her neck. 'Morning,' he said as Rose turned in his arms and faced him. They proceeded to have a cuddle and a snog before they had to get out of bed.

While they cuddled and snogged, Rickey the cyber dog trotted into their eldest son's bedroom and clambered up onto his bed. He proceeded to snuffle in his ear, and lick his face.

'Okay Rickey,' EJ laughed. 'I'm awake.' He scratched behind his pet's ear and patted his head.

The mechanical pet wagged his tail in satisfaction, jumped off the bed, and trotted out of the door to find the next recipient of his friendly wake up call. He moved across the transdimensional landing, and into the bedroom opposite.

The three year old Juleshka was asleep on her side, and Rickey stood on his hind legs with his front paws on the bed. He gently licked her cute, button nose, and she stirred as she wiped her damp nose. Her eyes flickered open, and a smile spread across her face as she saw the dog balancing in front of her, wagging its tail.

She grabbed his ears and kissed him on the nose. 'Morning Rickey.'

He panted excitedly, licked her nose again, and trotted out of the room, heading for the kitchen.

'Woof!' he announced to Donna-The-Robot.

'Good lad Rickey,' Donna-The-Robot said, reaching into the bowl of batteries, and flipping one into the air. He caught it in his mouth and swallowed it.

'Good boy,' Rose said, as she sat at the breakfast bar, eating her muesli. A few minutes later, they heard a set of hurried footsteps coming down the stairs.

'Morning,' Eyulf said as he breezed into the kitchen and jumped up onto a stool.

'Mornin' Son,' Rose said, as she once again turned down the collar of his polo shirt and tucked it into the neck of his blue, school sweatshirt. He never seemed to be able to get that right. She ran her fingers through his unruly hair, trying to get it into some semblance of order, before kissing him on the head.

'And what would young master Eyulf like for breakfast this mornin'?' Donna asked.

'Can I have some Rice Krispies please Donna?'

'One bowl of Rice Krispies comin' right up.'

They then heard small footsteps coming down the stairs, along the hallway, and into the kitchen.

'Mornin' Sweetheart,' Rose said with a smile, as she helped her daughter up onto the stool and kissed her on the top of her head.

'Morning Mummy, morning Donna.'

Donna's visual interface smiled. 'Hello Juleshka. And what would you like for breakfast?'

'Cheerios please,' she declared with enthusiasm.

'And a bowl of warm Ready Brek for this one,' John said from the doorway, as he carried Jason into the kitchen. He dipped him down to receive a kiss from Rose, before sitting him in his high chair at the end of the counter.

There was the usual hush in the kitchen, as breakfasts were eaten. John and Rose chatted about how Torchwood should proceed with Alice's investigation of the alien teenager, whilst Eyulf and Juleshka compared their experiences of what they were doing at school.

'Alice is here,' Donna announced suddenly.

'Can you let her in please Donna,' Rose said.

They heard the front door open and close, and the clip-clop of heels along the hallway. There was a chorus of greetings as Alice entered the kitchen, wearing a biscuit coloured jacket and skirt, with a cream blouse.

'How's Lillie this mornin'?' Rose asked her.

'A little angel,' Alice smiled.

Rose finished her mug of tea, licked her lips, puckered up, and gave John a snog. 'See ya later Love,' she said with her tongue through the teeth smile.

'Even if I see you first,' he replied, stroking her hips.

She reached her purse off the counter, and rummaged inside to find her lipstick and mirror. She applied her lippy, and pursed her lips together. 'Right, I'm ready. Be good kids and I'll see you this afternoon.'

'Bye Mum. Bye Auntie Alice,' Eyulf and Juleshka called back.

'Ma-ma-ma-ma,' Jason said, slapping his hands on the tray of his high chair.

'Bye,' Rose and Alice said as they headed down the hallway to the front door.

'I see from your report that your investigation has taken an unexpected turn,' Rose said as she fastened her seatbelt.

'Oh, you read my report then,' Alice said as she started the engine and pulled away.

'Yeah. Although I was workin' from home with John, I was still logged on to Torchwood and checkin' the reports. So, who d'ya think this Lyndsey is?'

'Definitely alien,' Alice said. 'She cleared that six foot fence like she was skipping over a puddle. I got the impression she was some kind of "minder" for Adam, although I don't think he's aware of that.'

'What d'ya think she meant when she said "it won't only be Adam who will be in danger. We are so close now"?' Rose asked, thinking about the timeline that her son had warned them about.

'I don't know. What danger? So close to what? There are so many questions about these two, and few answers.'

'I think it's time we raised the status to amber on Adam Knight,' Rose said as they made their way to Canary Wharf.

'Right then people, I hope you're all refreshed and ready for another day of wonderful weirdness,' Rose said, giving the Watch her usual greeting. 'Sorry I wasn't here yesterday, but me and John were followin' up some information we received on a potential threat to Torchwood.'

'So that's why we were on amber alert,' Jake said.

'And why security were practicing their emergency procedures,' Welsh Pete added.

'Yeah. Turned out to be a false alarm, but it needed checkin' out . . . Now then, to the business in hand. Angel and Andre, yesterday you went to the National Archive to find information on Adam Knight. Yesterday afternoon, Alice was warned off by a friend of his called Lyndsey.'

'Is Alice all right?' Angel asked with concern.

Rose smiled at her concern. 'Yeah, she's fine, but this Lyndsey appears to be an alien as well. We don't know who she is or where she lives, so I'd like you two to watch the Knight's house in Croydon and see if she turns up. If she does, put a "spy fly" on her and track her movements.'

'We're on our way,' Andre said, as he, Angel and camera director Chris Greenwood, stood and headed for the lifts.

Rose continued the briefing. 'Item two. This Lyndsey character told Alice that they were "so close now".'

'So close to what?' Irish Stu asked.

'Exactly! It sounds like Adam's mother was on the run and needed somewhere to hide her son. I want you and Welsh to look back at the archives for 2006. See if you can find anything about refugees or asylum seekers. Who were they running from and why?'

'We're on it,' Stuart told her as they headed for the Records Department.

'Item three. Chrissie; would you and Amy contact the Shadow Architect and request information on any known incidents fourteen Earth years ago that may have resulted in a refugee coming to Earth.'

'No problem,' Chrissie replied. She put a hand on Amy's shoulder. 'Come on my young protégé, it's time to talk to some off world aliens.'

'Cool!' Amy replied, full of enthusiasm.

Rose smiled at her eagerness. She remembered her own early days in Torchwood, but her experience was tinged with sadness at being stuck in this universe and losing the Doctor.

'Right, item four. Jake and Julia. Yesterday evening, White Watch identified the ship that nearly collided with the flight from Dusseldorf. The Legal Department have registered a complaint to their homeworld, and a request for a pilot awareness course for the "fly-boys" involved. I'd like you to go and issue a fixed penalty notice for flying without due care and attention.'

'Okay Rose, we'll go and slap their wrists,' Julia said with a grin.

* * *

John and Donna got the children ready for their day, and he dropped Eyulf and Juleshka off at their school, before taking Jason to Tyler Mansion, where he had a quick cup of tea with Jackie and Pete.

John sat down on the sofa, and unbuckled his son from the carry seat.

'Ooh, give 'im 'ere, let Grandma have a munch,' Jackie said, stooping down to lift him out of the seat. 'Grandma missed you yesterday, yes she did.'

Jenny, the maid, brought in the tea on a tray, followed closely by Pete, who had returned from taking his nine year old son Tony, to school.

'Morning John. Everything back to normal today then,' Pete said as he leaned over and kissed his grandson on the head.

'Yeah. We found that the perceived threat was a false alarm. But it was a good test of Torchwood security at least.'

Pete gave a little laugh as he sat down and nodded in agreement. 'It's always good to test the procedures now and again.'

They had a little chat about Torchwood, and the Tyler Foundation as John drank his tea.

'Right, better get a move on,' John told them. 'I've got a days worth of lab work to catch up on.'

'Oh John, on the way out, would you be a love and have a look at those goggles on the hall table for Tony?' Jackie asked him.

'Goggles, what's wrong with them?' John asked, thinking she was talking about swimming goggles.

'He picked them up on that asteroid market you took us to last week.'

'Ah, Tiaanamat,' he said, nodding his head.

'Yeah. The little alien guy said they were vision enhancing, but he'd need someone to look at 'em to get 'em to work.'

'Oh, yeah. No problem, I can have a look at them in my workshop.'

Jason was perched on Jackie's knee, smiling and gurgling away. John knelt down and blew a raspberry on his cheek, before kissing it and ruffling his hair. 'See you later little man, not too many full nappies for grandma, eh?'

He stood up, said his goodbyes to Pete and Jackie, before heading for the door. He walked down the hallway towards the front door and looked on the hall table. It wasn't a pair of swimming goggles he saw, but a pair of high tech, Ray ban style sunglasses.

The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as he remembered where he'd seen these glasses before. It was in the "alternate" TARDIS, when he'd been examining the alternate time lines. In the first time line, he had been in his workshop, wearing a pair of reflective Ray ban goggles, and looking at his hand with interest. He presumed it was an artefact that had been brought in overnight.

In the second time line, they had been here in the Mansion. After lunch, everyone had come back into the hallway and gone into the sitting room. Except for Jackie who had come to this hall table, picked up something, and followed them in. He now knew what Jackie had picked up. A few minutes later, the screen had gone dark. After that, there had been the harrowing radio messages from Danny and Clive, and news reports from a police cordon outside the gates to the mansion.

John picked up the glasses as though they might explode at any moment, and carefully carried them out of the Mansion, locking them safely in the glove compartment of the DeLorian.

'Forgotten somethin' again have ya?' Donna-The-House asked him as he climbed the steps to the front door of his Notting Hill house. 'Forget yer head if it wasn't bolted to yer neck.'

'Er, no Donna. I just need to put something in the TARDIS,' he replied. 'Oh, and can you do me a favour and just scan the house for anything unusual.'

'Unusual how?' she asked sarcastically. 'EJ having cleaned his room unusual? You puttin' the top back on the toothpaste unusual?'

'What about killer alien stormtroopers appearing out of thin air kind of unusual.'

'Tell yer what, I'll scan the house now,' she told him, any hint of sarcasm having disappeared.

'Thank you,' John said, heading for his basement workshop and the safest place in the universe.

* * *

Andre and Angel were sitting in a black Range Rover outside a secondary school in Croydon, drinking coffee out of a flask. Lyndsey had called at Adam's house, and Angel had followed them with a "spy fly" as they walked to the school.

'Biscuit?' Andre asked her as he held up a packet of chocolate digestives.

'Thank you,' Angel said, taking one and giving him a kiss on the cheek.

'I 'ope you weren't filming zat,' Andre said to Chris in the back seat. 'Biscuit?'

'Oh thanks,' Chris replied, leaning forward and taking a biscuit from the offered packet. 'The camera's off at the moment until something interesting happens.'

'Mmmm,' Angel mumbled as she swallowed a mouthful of coffee. 'I think it is time to switch on your camera.'

They watched as two tall men with pale skin and shaved heads, wearing long black coats, approached the entrance to the school grounds and started walking up the driveway. Angel wound down the window and scanned the strangers.

'Definitely "off world", and carrying weapons,' she told them.

Andre opened the door and climbed out. He went to the rear of the vehicle and opened the tailgate, taking out his bag of body armour, and getting back in the passenger seat.

'Agent Angel to Despatch requesting back up. We have two armed intruders entering the school. Over.'

['Copy that Angel. Armed response units are on their way to your location. Over,] Craig Owens replied.

'Follow zem slowly while I "suit up",' Andre instructed.

'Who are they?' Angel asked as she silently eased the vehicle forward on its electric motors.

'I don't know, but I doubt zat zey are school inspectors.'

The two intruders entered the school, and Angel pulled up in front of the entrance. Andre clicked his helmet in place, and looked at Chris in the back seat. 'You had better stay 'ere.'

Chris nodded as they climbed out of the Range Rover and "tooled up". They checked their stun guns and holstered them. They then checked their Heckler & Koch MP5SF's and holstered those as well. Finally they checked their SA80 assault rifles and slung them over their backs. They looked at each other and nodded. They were ready.

They ran up the steps and into the reception hall. Through the office reception window, they could see secretaries huddled under desks. One of them was on her phone, speaking to the emergency services.

'We are Torchwood,' Angel told them. 'If that is the police you are calling, tell them we have armed response units on the way.'

Andre had moved forward along a corridor, following the map on his head up display towards the foodhall. It was midday, and the students would be starting their lunch break. As Angel came up behind him, they heard screams coming from the hall.

They assessed the situation with a "spy-fly" and saw two thugs standing in the middle of the foodhall, looking around at the faces. 'Do not move and you will not be harmed.'

'Who are you? What the hell is going on?' one of the teachers asked as he walked towards the intruders.

This tipped their hand. They would have to act now to protect the teacher. Andre drew his stunner and stepped out. ['FREEZE! You are under arrest. Do not make any sudden moves or you will be rendered unconscious. Do you understand?'] he said through his helmet public address system.

The two thugs turned to face him, and drew what looked like high tech sawn off shotguns from inside their long black coats. Before they could use them, Andre and Angel opened fire.

"Zap, zap, za-zap!"

The foodhall was in pandemonium as students screamed again, scrambling under tables and for the exits. Teachers huddled their students together and herded them towards the fire exits.

Electrical energy arced over the bodies of the assailants, but seemed to have little effect on them. The first thug raised his weapon.

"Whump!" A bolt of energy shot across the room and hit Andre square in the middle of his chest armour. He flew backwards and clattered across the wooden parquet floor, wisps of smoke rising from the hole in the front of his chest armour.

'NO!' Angel cried. She swung the SA80 assault rifle from behind her and let off small, controlled bursts of fire. The first thug staggered backwards under the force of the bullets. She then targeted the second thug and did the same. He also staggered backwards, but did not drop.

They recovered their balance and started to raise their weapons. Suddenly, a teenage girl sprang from under a table and grabbed the first thug's gun. She yanked it around and shot the second thug, who flew backwards and crashed through a table, causing more screams from the students hiding underneath it.

Lyndsey then kicked the first thug between his legs, head butted him in the face, and whacked him across the jaw with the butt of the weapon.

'ADAM, RUN!' she shouted as she launched an impressive martial arts attack on the first thug.

Angel had scrambled across the floor to cradle Andre's head on her lap and lift the helmet visor. 'Andre? Andre, speak to me. Andre?'

She saw the second thug convulse and then recover from the shot he had received. Then she saw Adam Knight, looking at Lyndsey in a mix of fear and awe.

'ADAM! WITH ME, NOW!' Angel shouted, as she grabbed Andre's wrists and started to drag him out of the foodhall.

Adam looked at her and then back at Lyndsey. He was terrified and didn't know what to do. Lyndsey took a moment to look at Angel, dragging her dying comrade towards the doors. They were Torchwood, and it was their interference that had brought these soldiers here. But she had no choice now but to trust the safety of her charge to them.

'Adam, go with her, help her.' She looked to Angel. 'Keep him safe. I am trusting you against my better judgement. The time is nearly upon us.' She received a fist to the side of her head and she was once again engaged in mortal combat, trying to keep the thugs from their weapons.

Angel didn't know what time was nearly upon them, and frankly, she didn't care as she dragged Andre down the corridor.

'Here, let me,' Chris Greenwood said from behind her, as he handed her his camera and lifted Andre over his shoulder. He'd seen the teachers and students running out of the school and decided to see what was happening. He had been a cameraman in war zones, and was no stranger to danger. Besides, he knew award winning footage when he took it.

They hurried down the corridor and out of the front entrance, dropping Andre onto the rear seats. Angel bustled Adam into the front passenger seat, and climbed into the back of the Range Rover to remove Andre's helmet and cradle his head on her lap. She gently stroked his cheek, but got no response.

'Agent Angel to Despatch declaring code red. Agent down. Over.'

['Despatch to Angel. Er, help is on the way Angel,'] Craig Owens said. ['Er, what is your status? Over.']

'I have Adam Knight in protective custody. The female known as Lyndsey is holding off the attackers while we get Adam to safety. She will require backup.'

['Angel, it's Danny. How is Andre?'] Danny Walton asked. He was mentoring Craig on this shift.

Angel sobbed as she responded. 'I do not know. He is unconscious.'

['Okay Sweetheart, hold it together. Have you got your scanner available?']

'My scanner . . . of course!' She took her scanner out of her pocket and started to scan Andre. The readings were not good. He had multiple organ damage and they were shutting down . . . He was dying.

Angel thumped the scanner with her palm and tried again. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she saw the readings get worse. 'NO! Andre, wake up. You cannot die. You cannot.'

['Angel? How is Andre? Angel, this is Danny. Respond please. What is Andre's status? Over.']

When Angel spoke, her voice was quiet and hollow. A voice that no agent on Despatch ever wanted to hear. 'He's gone.'


	9. A meeting on Woman Wept

**Chapter 9**

Rose leaned her elbows on the TARDIS console, and her chin on her fists as she looked at the monitor screen. John had the Ray ban glasses in the stasis container, where he was carefully scanning them and hoping that he wouldn't "set them off".

'If it was these glasses that got everyone killed, are we safe doin' this?' Rose asked with concern. She still shuddered as she remembered how upset her son was when he ran into their bedroom that morning.

'That's why we're in the TARDIS,' John told her. He'd flown it from his basement workshop to the Standby Room at Torchwood. 'I've got the extrapolator shields up to maximum, and the glasses are in a stasis field.'

'And what have you found out?' Rose asked.

John scratched the back of his neck and pulled a frowning face. 'Wellll. It's one of those rare occasions when I come across something that I've never seen before.'

Rose looked surprised, and he brought up the scan information on the monitor. 'There's a lot of technology integrated into these glasses. From what I can tell, it's almost like a wearable sonic screwdriver. Molecular processors with terabytes of memory storage, but no hint of who made them.'

Rose thought about that and wondered who would need a pair of glasses like these. 'Could they be like, I don't know, "black ops" equipment for an alien special forces unit or somethin'?'

John was frowning in thought. Even in his old body when he was the Doctor, he never really thought in military terms. Well, there was that one time, and he did everything he could to forget that regeneration. He raised his eyebrows as he contemplated his wife's suggestion, and a big smile spread across his face.

'That's brilliant!' he said as he stole a kiss. 'It certainly fits the facts. The glasses switch on and start gathering tactical data, number of targets, assets, all that military stuff. That intelligence is fed to a task force, and they beam in to retrieve the glasses and their owner.'

'But to kill everyone in the building? That seems a bit . . . well, of an overkill, if you know what I mean.'

'Maybe I inadvertently activated a distress beacon. Or maybe they're like the old world Daleks, wanting to exterminate anything that isn't like them. Or, maybe they don't want to take any chances and just kill everything in sight . . . just in case.'

Rose shuddered at the thought of that. 'Urgh. So where do they "beam in" from? Surely they must have a ship near by?'

'You'd hope so. Because a civilisation that can jump across galaxies is too scary to think about. Remember the Dalek Crucible? That was able to move twenty seven planets.'

'Oh my God.'

'Exactly. So I think it's time to go somewhere secluded and switch these on.'

'WHAT!? Are you crazy? That's invitin' trouble,' Rose said incredulously.

'No. It's inviting the owner of these glasses to come and get them. We'll be nice and safe behind the extrapolator shields. Remember when me and Jack came to rescue you from that Dalek ship?'

Rose thought back to that day so very long ago, in a universe far, far away. 'Oh yeah. The Daleks tried to shoot us but couldn't get through the shield. So where are you gonna take us then?'

'A nice little lifeless world,' he told her with a cheeky smile. 'A bit chilly this time of year, but some stunning scenery.'

'Woman Wept!' she exclaimed with delight. 'You're takin' us to Woman Wept.'

'Yeah. Let's go to the wardrobe and get kitted out in our furs,' he said as he activated the Comms link on the console. 'Doctor Smith to Despatch. Craig, I'm taking your rather sexy supervisor for a trip in the TARDIS. We won't be long.'

['Copy that Doctor Smith. I'll let Captain McNab know.']

John smiled at Craig's formal response and set the coordinates before starting the Time Rotor. 'Should be a nice trip down memory lane,' he said to his wife as he took her hand and strolled out of the Console Room.

They both emerged from the wardrobe dressed like Inuit Eskimos, covered head to toe in fur. John remembered when he was in a different body, when he couldn't help but admire Rose's face, beautifully framed by the fur around the hood, accentuating her gorgeous smile and hazel eyes.

The Time Rotor stopped and he shut down the console. 'Come on then, let's go see,' he said, pulling up the hood and holding out his mittened hand for her. She pulled her own hood up, and mitten in mitten, they walked down the ramp.

He stepped out of the TARDIS and turned to face her as she stepped onto the snow covered ground. She looked out on the scene of magnificent desolation, it was midnight, and the landscape was illuminated by an eerie twilight from the moons above.

She could feel the cold prickling her cheeks, and saw snakes of ice dust drifting off into the distance, where the horizon blended with the sky. 'It's still as beautiful as last time we were here,' she panted, her breath creating puffs of steam as she spoke.

'Wellll. Technically, we've never been here before,' he started to explain. 'That was in the other universe.'

'Smarty pants,' she said, rubbing up against him and stealing a kiss. 'I remember we had a snowball fight . . . And you fell on top of me.'

'You pulled me on top of you,' he corrected her.

'Yeah, I did. And at that moment, I SO wanted you to kiss me.'

'Really? Well, to be honest, I SO wanted to kiss you. But I thought it might make things awkward between us while we were travelling in the TARDIS.'

'Yeah. I suppose it would have done. But hey-ho, here we are now. And we do a whole lot more than just kissin',' she said with her tongue-between-her-teeth smile.

He chuckled and looked up at the curved cliff of ice, over a hundred feet tall, crested with snow which was blowing off the top of it. 'Well, time to get down to business.'

He took the Ray ban glasses out of a pocket and zapped them with his sonic screwdriver. 'Right, that's the invitation sent out. Let's see who RSVP's.'

Half a minute later, they heard the console beep through the open door of the TARDIS.

'They're here,' John said in a sing-song voice, imitating the line from the film "Poltergeist".

Two shadowy images solidified in front of them, followed immediately by two muzzle flashes. Two explosive bullets crumbled to dust in front of their faces.

['Optical device located. Liquidation of biological unit failed. Retrieval of optical unit failed.']

'Now, what kind of welcome is that?' John asked as he looked at the gunmen and scanned them with his sonic screwdriver.

Calling them gunmen was pushing the definition a bit. Standing in front of them, were two matt black, insect like robots, complete with heads that looked like those of a praying mantis.

'By the look of you, I'm guessing these glasses aren't yours. So why would you kill for them?' John wondered out loud.

[Reattempting liquidation and retrieval.'] The robots fired another two rounds, which again, crumbled to dust.

'Well, if you're going to be like that . . . I'll just have to go inside and download all the data stored on these glasses,' John told them. 'And to make sure you don't go anywhere, I want to verify your programming.'

[Reattempting liquidation and retrieval.'] The robots fired again.

John consulted the readings on the sonic, and then "sonicked" the robots to activate their internal diagnostic protocols. 'Interrogative, diagnostic mode. What is your primary function?'

['To locate advanced covert technology belonging to our homeworld,'] the first robot answered.

'Interrogative, diagnostic mode. What is your secondary function?'

['To liquidate any threat to retrieving that advanced covert technology,'] the second robot responded.

'And finally,' John said with a waggle of his eyebrows at Rose. 'You have fulfilled your primary function and failed your secondary function. Therefore your secondary function now becomes your primary function. Confirm,' he told the robots.

['Logic is sound. Confirmed. Secondary function upgraded to Primary function.']

'However, if your primary function is to liquidate any threat and retrieve advanced covert technology, you cannot achieve this without first fulfilling your secondary function. Therefore your primary function now becomes your secondary function. Confirm,' he finished.

['Logic is sound. Confirmed. Primary function downgraded to Secondary function. Secondary function upgraded to Primary function. Primary function downgraded to Secondary function. Secondary function . . .']

'Back in a tick,' John told them and went inside, where he ran up the ramp to the console and put the glasses on a sensor plate. He then went to the monitor and started typing on the keyboard below. High speed video started streaming into the TARDIS computer as John put on his brainy glasses and watched it on the monitor.

'What did you just do to those robots?' Rose asked him as she joined him at the monitor.

'Oh that. I just adapted the "liar's paradox", and used the principle of excluded middle.'

'Really? And what did you just do to those robots?' Rose asked sarcastically.

He looked away from the monitor and smiled at her. 'The principle of excluded middle states that for any proposition, either that proposition is true, or its opposite is true. Those two will be thinking around in a circle for hours, if not forever.'

He looked back at the monitor. 'There's years worth of data stored in these glasses,' he told Rose. 'I think you're right about them being military. And by the look of it, Laurel and Hardy outside, were part of an attempt at a Nash equilibrium.'

Rose was trying to follow the high speed action on the screen, but couldn't keep up. 'Hang on, you've mentioned that before. America and the USSR in the cold war wasn't it?'

John gave her a big grin. 'Top marks for paying attention. Mutually assured destruction . . . These robots were designed to locate technology that unbalanced the equilibrium, eliminate any antagonists that could have knowledge of that technology, and then leave.'

'That explains what happened in the alternate time line then,' Rose said. 'So where do they come from? I mean, who sent them?'

'Ah, well. That's the problem with artificially intelligent robots, they can be artificially stupid at the same time. Add to that the absence of any robotic laws, and you have the recipe for disaster.'

'Are you tellin' me it's like the film "Terminator" and the machines took over?'

'As far as I can tell, yes. The robots had no concept of sides, no loyalty except to their logic. They eliminated everyone who had advanced black ops technology. The ultimate Nash equilibrium.'

'When was this?' Rose wondered.

'Do you see anything incongruous about those two out there? Advanced robots using projectile weapons instead of energy weapons?'

'They haven't progressed. They're using what they were given.'

He gave her a proud kiss on the lips. 'Exactly. It must have happened centuries ago. These glasses must have run out of power and slipped through the net. Waiting for someone clever to switch them on again. Talking of which . . .' He used his sonic screwdriver to deactivate the glasses.

'So where have they come from?' Rose asked with concern. 'Is there a whole fleet of those things waiting to pounce?'

John went back to the monitor. 'Oh wow! They didn't teleport from a ship. It wasn't a transmat they used. It was a transwarp-mat. They bent space to travel across the galaxy.'

'What, like the TARDIS does?'

'Similar, yeah. Come on, we'd better make them safe.'

He took her hand and walked down the ramp to the doors.

['Secondary function upgraded to Primary function. Primary function downgraded to Secondary function . . .']

'Oh, still here then,' John said jokingly. 'Interrogative, diagnostic mode. What is your primary function?'

['To locate advanced covert technology . . . To liquidate any threat to retrieving advanced covert technology . . . To locate . . .'] they said together.

'Oh dear. You seem to be a little confused. Let me try and help. Interrogative, diagnostic mode. Can you fulfill any of your functions?'

['Negative,'] they replied.

'Well then . . . Executive command mode, repair protocol. Purge all corrupted command functions. Confirm.'

['Command confirmed. Purging corrupted command functions.'] Both robots leaned forwards slightly and stopped moving.

John grinned. 'Logic problems. Don'tcha just love 'em.'

* * *

Chris Greenwood started the Range Rover and spun the wheels as he did a U-turn in front of the school. He could see students running out of the building on all sides, being directed to safety by the teachers.

As he drove up the driveway, another black Range Rover turned into the entrance. He slowed down and rolled down the window, to see the worried face of Craig Rimmer.

'Chris? What's happening?' he asked, wondering why a camera director was driving a Torchwood vehicle.

'Angel is in the back with Andre. He's been hit in the chest . . . I'm afraid he didn't make it.'

Gwen gasped. 'Oh God no!'

'There's a teenage girl in the foodhall fighting the attackers. Be careful, Andre's and Angel's weapons were ineffective.'

'Thanks for that Chris. Can you take them back to Torchwood, I'll let them know you are on the way.'

Chris nodded and floored the accelerator, skidding on the turn out of the driveway and onto the road.

'What did you mean when you said he didn't make it?' Adam asked in a trembling voice. He turned to look at Angel. 'And you. You said he's gone. What do you mean?'

Chris put a hand on Adam's shoulder. 'He's dead. The shot to his chest killed him . . . I'm sorry.'

'But he can't be. This can't happen. Not because of me.' Chris noticed that Adam's teary eyes were almost glowing with an emerald light. 'No! It's not right! I won't stand for this.'

Adam released his seatbelt and scrambled between the seats into the back of the car.

'Adam, what are you doing?' Chris asked as he tried to watch where he was driving. He didn't know how to activate the autopilot function.

'I don't know,' he told him. 'I just know I've got to help him. Lyndsey said I had to help you.'

Adam's hands started to glow with a faint green light as he touched the wound on Andre's chest. 'Please mister, wake up. You can't die. Not because of me. Please wake up.'

'Andre,' Angel sobbed. 'His name is Andre.'

'Andre, I know I can do something. I can feel it, but I don't know what,' Adam cried. 'I need your help. We need to help each other.'

Adam felt the need to rub his hands together, and as he did, the green glow grew stronger. There was a faint crackling, sizzling sound and a smell of ozone coming from his hands. He held his hands above his head and then thrust them down onto Andre's chest.

Andre's body convulsed as though he'd received a jolt from a defibrillator. Angel squealed and hugged Andre's head tighter. Arcs of green energy crackled over Andre before spluttering away.

'What have you done to him?' Angel asked angrily. This was her dead lover he was abusing. As if in answer to her question, Andre's body gave a sudden gasp, and started to breathe once again.

'I'm not sure . . . but I think I've saved him,' Adam replied.

* * *

Craig pulled up outside the school entrance, and he and Gwen climbed out. They were already wearing their "Halo" Spartan armour, so all they needed to do was attach their helmets.

Will Hustler filmed as they went to the tailgate and opened it, before opening the firearms locker. They took out two plasma pulse rifles that had originally been designed to bring down a Cyberman.

'Lock and load,' Gwen said as they pulled back the sliders, which charged the bonding chamber ready for firing.

'You'd better wait here,' Craig told him. 'We've already lost one agent today. We don't want to lose a civilian as well.'

'No arguments from me,' Will said, climbing into the back seat and filming through the window.

Craig and Gwen ran through the school entrance, and followed the map on their head up displays until they reached the food hall, where they stood with their backs against the corridor wall. They could hear the sound of unarmed combat through the door. They had the view from Angel's "spy-fly" on their head up displays, and knew where the assailants were.

'Ready?' Craig asked.

'Ready!' Gwen answered.

As one unit they turned and entered the foodhall. One of the thugs was kneeling down, just reaching for his "shotgun".

['FREEZE,'] Gwen shouted. She wanted nothing more than to kill the bastards who had killed Andre. But Andy's SAS training had kicked in, and she would perform her duty with skill and professionalism.

"With an emotional finger on the trigger, you can shoot in an instant, and repent for a lifetime," she remembered Andy telling them in the early days of their training. "Remember, you are surgeons; using weapons as scalpels to cut out a cancer."

The kneeling thug grabbed the weapon and turned to fire.

"Wharrrp!" Gwen pulled the trigger, and a beam of bright light hit the thug in the chest. He stiffened and fell backwards like a marble statue.

Lyndsey leaped high into the air, spinning like a top, and caught the remaining attacker on the side of his head with her foot.

['Move and you die!'] Craig said menacingly. ['Your choice.']

The thug looked at his fallen comrade. He looked at Lyndsey with disdain, and then he looked at Craig and smiled.

['DON'T DO IT!'] Craig shouted. He'd seen that look of resignation before, when he'd been a soldier for UNIT. The attacker had nothing left, nothing to lose.

The thug roared and ran forward. Craig pulled the trigger, and the thug pulled up short, stiffening and falling forwards at Craig's feet.

Gwen had made her way over to Lyndsey, who was kneeling on the floor and breathing hard. She lifted the visor on her helmet and put a hand on Lyndsey's shoulder. 'Are you okay? That was an amazing feat to hold these two at bay.'

Lyndsey turned to look at Gwen with eyes that seemed older than the teenage face that held them. 'Where's Adam? Is he safe?'

'Er, yeah. He's on his way back to Torchwood. We'll protect him.'

Lyndsey gave a single laugh as stood up and walked towards the door. 'You have no idea. Take me to him,' she commanded and then added 'please,' as an afterthought.

'Agent Craig Rimmer to Despatch. We need a clean up squad at the school. Two alien corpses for retrieval. Over.'

['Despatch . . . Copy that,'] Craig Owens replied.

'So what is it with you and Adam then?' Gwen asked, trying to make conversation and find out a little bit about this mysterious teenager. 'Girlfriend?' she asked teasingly.

'Protector,' Lyndsey replied in a tone of voice that said the conversation was over.


	10. Two birds with one stone

**Chapter 10**

John and Rose materialised the TARDIS on the landing pad of the Standby Room, and stepped out through the doors.

'Hi everyone, we're back,' Rose called out to a sombre room.

'Just saved everyone from a fate worse than death,' John said as he closed the door behind him. 'Although I don't know what could be . . . worse . . . than . . .' he stopped talking as he saw the faces of the Watch members.

'What's wrong?' Rose asked. 'What's happened?'

She could see that the new recruits were as white as sheets from shock.

Gwen looked up with red rimmed eyes from where she'd been crying. 'It's Andre . . . He's been shot.'

Rose gasped. 'Oh God no,' she moaned. She didn't want to ask the next question. 'Is he . . ?'

'They lost him in the car, but somehow they got him back. He's in resus at the moment.'

Rose reached for John's hand for support. 'I've got to go and see him.'

John nodded in agreement. 'Yeah, come on, let's go.'

In the resus room of the hospital floor, Doctor Marla Jones was working on an intubated Andre to stabilise his vital signs. Nurse Rory Williams was working along side her with a team of trauma specialists.

Andre's partner was sitting on a chair in the waiting area being comforted by Alice. Rose went over to them.

'Angel. I just heard, I'm so sorry. Is there any news?'

'No. They are still working on him. They haven't said anything,' she said in a quiet, tearful voice.'

Rose reached for her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. 'I'll see what I can find out.'

'Thank you Rose.' She gave a little sob. 'I thought I'd lost him Rose. For a moment, in the car, he was dead. I don't know what I would do without him.'

'Hey, it won't come to that.' She looked at her husband. 'Will it!'

John had a stormy look in his eyes. 'Not on your watch, no.'

They went into resus to see what was happening. John went over to Marla.

'How's he doing Martha?'

'Oh, hi John, Rose. I'm not sure at the moment. He has third degree burns to his chest with some carbonised tissue. Multiple organ damage consistent with a massive energy discharge. And don't even ask me how his heart's still beating.'

Rose had tears in her eyes. 'Will he be all right?'

Martha looked grim. 'I just don't know. We've put him into a medically induced coma to keep him stable and control his pain, but beyond that . . .'

'Is it safe to move him?' John asked her.

'Well, we'll eventually have to move him to ITU, but it's risky. I wouldn't advise it just yet,' Marla said.

'Okay. Let me put it another way. Will he die on that stretcher between here and the Standby Room?'

Marla thought long and hard. 'No.'

John gave her his winning smile. 'Good. Grab the other end then. Allons-y!'

The stretcher rattled out of the lift in the Standby Room, with John pulling, and Rory pushing. Marla was by the side of the stretcher, monitoring the portable ventilator and monitors. Rose had an arm around Angel's shoulders and was guiding her towards the TARDIS.

The members of the Watch stood and watched the morbid procession like mourners at a funeral. 'Angel?' Gwen called to her, and she looked back with haunted eyes. Everyone was silent, not wanting to know the worst.

John stopped at the doors of the TARDIS, turned, and opened them wide before pulling the stretcher inside.

'Holy shit!' Rory said, as he looked around the domed room in open mouthed amazement. He then realised there were ladies present. 'Er, sorry ladies.'

Marla laughed. 'That's all right Rory. It kinda takes you by surprise the first time. And yes, it is bigger on the inside.'

Rose normally loved to see people's reaction to the TARDIS, but today, it held no pleasure.

'What is this place?' Rory asked as they went past the console to the passageway beyond.

'Oh, that's right. You're new here aren't you? You must be Amy's fiancé Rory. Nice to meet you Rory. I'm John. The cute blonde at the back is Rose, my wife, and this . . . is the TARDIS.'

He guided the stretcher to the Medi-Bay, and they slid Andre onto one of the couches. The equipment immediately sprang into life and started beeping and pinging, as a computer graphic of Andre's body slowly appeared line by line on the monitor above his head.

A robotic arm with what looked like a paint sprayer moved up and down Andre's chest, spraying a green foam over the burnt skin. John picked up a hand held device and pressed a few buttons. A faint, golden mist sprayed out of the handset and spread over Andre's body.

'What's happening?' Rory asked.

'Nanogenes,' John told him as if that explained everything. He saw the questioning expression on Rory's face. 'Molecular robots, programmed to repair tissues at a cellular level. Very beneficial in here, but potentially disastrous out there in the big, wide world. Eh, Rose?'

'Are you my mummy?' Rose said with a smile.

'Right then, let's have a look,' John said, consulting the monitor. 'Scarring on the liver is being repaired, ditto for his kidneys and his lungs. I think you can take that tube out of his throat now Martha and wake him up.'

Rory attempted to express his disbelief. 'That's . . . that's . . .'

John grinned at him. 'Impossible? Incredible? Unbelievable? Brilliant?'

'Yeah . . . All of the above,' Rory replied, nodding his head.

'So he is going to be all right?' Angel asked.

Andre gasped and coughed as the breathing tube was removed from his throat. 'Why don't you come and see for yourself,' Marla suggested.

Angel walked forward and picked up Andre's hand. 'Andre, my love. Can you hear me?'

'Am I in 'eaven?' Andre asked. 'Because I can 'ear ze voice of an angel.'

'Oh you can hear an angel all right,' John said with a grin. 'But for you my friend, heaven can wait.'

Andre opened his eyes, looked to the side, and saw the tear stained face of his lover. ''Ello my love. Did you miss me?'

Angel laughed and cried at the same time. 'Yes! And I wish that alien would have missed you also.'

André laughed, which made him cough. When he finished coughing, he scrutinised her face for a long time, as if trying to come to a decision. When he finally spoke, his face was serious. 'Angel, you know 'ow I asked you to move into my apartment?'

'Yes,' she said uncertainly.

'Well, I 'ave changed my mind.' Being killed, if only momentarily, had made him realise how fleeting their lives were, and how uncertain the future could be.

'Oh,' she said disappointedly. 'I see . . . I understand.'

Andre smiled weakly. 'No, you do not. Angel, will you marry me?'

Angel's face wasn't the only one that looked stunned.

'Well, nothing like a near death experience for putting things into perspective, is there?' John said.

Tears started to flow down Angel's cheeks. Rose and Marla wiped their eyes. 'Yes my love. I will marry you.'

'Well isn't that nice,' John said, turning back to the monitor. 'Oh, hello. It looks like someone's already had a go at repairing your heart Andre,' John said with a frown.

'That was Adam,' Angel told him. 'He rubbed his hands together and created a green energy. He hit Andre on the chest, and he came back to life.'

'Who the hell is Adam?' John asked.

'Adam Knight, that teenager that Alice went to interview,' Rose told him. 'The alien who doesn't know he's an alien.'

'Oh, him. I'll tell you what, I bet he's got a fair idea now. I think it's time I met this knight in green, shining armour.'

* * *

Adam Knight was sitting on a couch between his parents in the visitors area, with his mother's arm around his shoulders. Lyndsey was sitting on a couch opposite, with Alice. They both still had their school uniforms on. John and Rose approached and sat on an adjacent couch.

Alice introduced them. 'Lloyd, Erica. This is Doctor John Smith, scientific advisor to Torchwood, and this is his wife, Rose. She's the Blue Watch Supervisor.'

'Oh yes,' Erica realised. 'I've seen you on the TV . . . Please, can you tell me . . . is Adam in trouble?'

'Trouble?' John said in confusion. 'No. Quite the opposite. He's a hero. He saved the life of one of our agents.'

'Has he gotten himself involved in one of those situations that we see on the documentary?' Lloyd asked.

Rose laughed. 'Y'could say that, yeah.'

'But there's only one person here who can tell us that. Isn't there Lyndsey,' John said, looking at her with those dark, ancient eyes.

Lyndsey returned his gaze with emerald eyes that weren't as ancient as his, but were certainly older than the teenage girl that owned them. 'Yes, you are correct. I am Adam's protector, charged with keeping him safe and hidden until the time of his awakening.'

Lloyd looked at his wife and back to Lyndsey. 'Protector? Awakening? What awakening?'

'Please Lloyd, let her finish,' Alice said kindly.

Lyndsey nodded her thanks. 'Adam's birth mother was Izo Beylah-Hoth. A noble woman of the Elite caste. Hundreds of years ago, a genetically engineered caste of strong, hardy individuals was created to perform difficult task that were beyond the abilities of ordinary people.'

'Slaves y'mean,' Rose said with a disapproving air.

'No, Ergos, workers. They were employed. They had rights. They worked in construction, engineering, the military.'

'Oh don't tell me this is going where I think it is going,' John said.

'The military Ergos became discontent. They felt that for defending the planet, they should be elevated to the status of Elite.'

'Told you,' John said. 'Where was this? What planet?'

'Yarka Teeyac, on the far side of the galaxy, far beyond the Condensate Wilderness, out towards the Wildlands and the Dark Matter reefs.'

'No! You're kidding me. You mean there's a planet out there called Yakety Yak?' John said with a grin.

Lyndsey looked puzzled. 'It is pronounced Yarka Teeyac. Is there a problem?'

'John,' Rose said, trying to stifle a laugh.

'What?'

'I was going to say, don't talk back.' They both started laughing.

'Don't talk back is probably the sister planet,' John said, continuing to laugh. They stopped laughing abruptly when they saw Lyndsey giving them a disapproving look.

'Do you want to hear the story of the sad demise of our planet?'

'Ah, yes,' they said sheepishly. 'Sorry.' They sat like naughty, children, looking suitably embarrassed.

'There was an uprising, and the Ergos seized control from the Elites. But this was not enough for them. They started to execute the Elites, to eradicate them from existence so that there would only be the military as the Elite caste. The Ergos that were loyal to the Elites were slaughtered with them.'

John raked his hand down his face, wishing that he hadn't laughed a moment ago. 'Genocide . . . Lyndsey, Adam, I am SO sorry.'

Lyndsey saw the haunted look in John's eyes of a memory that he would rather forget. She nodded at him. 'I know you are.' She said kinly before turning to Adam and continuing. 'The Elites that were able, fled the planet. Your father acted as a decoy so that your mother could escape.'

'What were they like?' Adam asked quietly. 'My real . . . No, not real parents, that's not the right word.' He looked at Erica and Lloyd. 'You're my real parents.'

'Your biological parents,' Erica said with a sad smile. 'I was their housekeeper on Yarka . . .' She looked at John and Rose uncertainly. '. . . . On our home world. They were kind and thoughtful, and good employers. Your mother gave me a data file for you to watch when the awakening had occurred.'

'I'm presuming the awakening is an Elite version of puberty, where a child transforms and is able to perform some remarkable feats,' John said.

Before she could reply, there was a gentle "bonging" noise and the lights pulsed with a red light.

'What's that?' Erica asked with concern.

'Special Operations Unit,' Rose told her. 'They've gone to red alert.'

She heard Jack Harkness in her ear comms. ['Rosie. Is the Doc with you?']

'Yes Jack. We're just getting some background on Adam Knight from Lyndsey. What's happened?'

['There's a very, very big object parked in orbit above us. I'd like his input on it.']

'Okay Jack, we're on our way.' She turned to John. 'Something has appeared in orbit.'

'It sounds like your friends have found you,' John said.

'It is the awakening. The energy that Adam used to save your comrade is like a beacon. It is how the Ergos tracked down and killed the Elites.'

Rose could see the oncoming storm in John's eyes as he spoke. 'This ends here, today.' His eyes then softened and he turned to Adam. 'How'd you fancy visiting the nerve centre of Torchwood?'

And Adam reacted like a typical teenager. 'Oh yeah. That'd be brilliant.'

Jack Harkness was in the Despatch Office when John entered with his little group. 'Jack. This is Lloyd and Erica Knight, and their son Adam. And this is Lyndsey . . .' He waved his hand about. 'Somebody or other.'

Jack shook their hands. 'Jack Harkness, nice to meet you all.'

John went over to the Comms desk. 'Chrissie. What have you got for me?'

On a large media screen, Chrissie brought up the image of something that looked like a leaf blower with various boxes, domes, antennae and cylinders stuck to it in a seemingly random fashion. With the star field behind it, there was no way to judge the scale of the object.

'This hundred kilometres long, irregular shaped object appeared ten thousand miles out and has parked itself in geostationary orbit above Europe. They are transmitting a repeated message.'

'Which is?' John asked.

'Deliver the changeling for execution within one of your hours or we will execute him with the rest of the planet,' Chrissie read.

'Oh isn't that just wizard,' John's inner Donna said. 'You get rid of a bunch of psychopathic robots, and a bunch of psychopathic, genetically engineered mutants turn up.' He looked at Lyndsey. 'No offence.'

Lyndsey smiled at him. She was starting to like this unusual man. 'None taken. It seems a fair assessment of the situation.'

'Psychopathic robots?' Jack asked.

Rose touched his arm. 'Don't worry about it. It's sorted.'

'Right then let's open some lines of communication shall we. See if we can have a bit of tête-à-tête so to speak. Chrissie, open a channel to the Death Star.'

'Okay John. Connection established.'

'This is Doctor John Smith of the Torchwood Institute, seeking audience with the leader of the Ergos commander under peaceful contract according to convention 15 of the Shadow Proclamation.'

There was a long pause before a bald headed Ergos appeared on the screen. ['We know nothing of the Shadow Proclamation. State your purpose.']

John rubbed the back of his neck. 'Blimey, you are a long way from home, aren't you. My purpose is to try and resolve this situation in a peaceful manner. On this planet, if you want to execute someone, they must have been convicted of a terrible crime.'

['We are not on your planet. The changeling is an Elite and will be executed.']

'What? For being born? It's not a crime to be born!' He rubbed the back of his neck and thought about that. 'Unless your name's Katie Hopkins I suppose . . .'

['Deliver the changeling to us, or we will destroy the planet.']

John turned to face the group. 'It's one life or seven billion.'

'You can't seriously be considering giving up our son,' Lloyd said, putting a protective arm around Adam's shoulders. 'They'll have to get past me first.'

John gave him a winning smile. Humans! Hah! Faced with insurmountable odds against an irresistible force, they stood up to the plate as the immovable object. They were the mouse that roared in the face of the salivating lion. How brilliant was that? No wonder he married one of them.

He looked to Lyndsey. 'Do the Ergos have a fleet of these ships, or is there just this one?'

'Just this one. If the world doesn't give up the Elite, they use the ship to destroy the planet.'

He turned back to the screen. 'I don't suppose there's any chance that you could forget that you found him and leave is there?'

['No!']

'Thought not . . . Deliver him to you, that's what you said wasn't it?'

['Yes!']

'John?!' Rose said in concern, but then she saw the mischievous smile on his face when he turned to face her. She could sense a deception.

He gave them a wink and turned to the screen once more. 'I have a teleport pod. It's a little blue box. If you give me the coordinates of your control centre, I'll let justice be delivered.'

The Ergos commander looked away for a moment and then looked back at the group. ['The coordinates have been sent. Do not delay, and no tricks.'] The screen went dead.

'You can't,' Erica pleaded. 'He's just a boy.'

'He's not "just" a boy, he's a remarkable boy,' John said. 'And a credit to you. He's staying here. I told them I was going to deliver justice, and I gave them a chance to leave,' he said in an emotionless voice.

Rose sidled up to him and held the lapels of his brown, pinstriped jacket. 'You've got a plan, ain'tcha?'

'When have I ever had a plan? I'm more the excitable Labrador puppy type. Just blunder in there, all enthusiasm and energy, and see what happens.'

'And that's what I love about ya,' she said. She pulled him into long, loving kiss.

He had a cocky smile on his face when she'd finished. 'I know.'

He looked at everyone in Despatch and the Standby Room, and gave them a cheeky eyebrow waggle before swaggering over to the TARDIS. He was about to open the doors when he had a sudden realisation.

'I've just remembered. Andre and his group are still in here.' He pushed the doors wide open and strolled up the ramp. 'Oi Andre. Shake a leg. You can't lounge about in here all day. Some of us have got work to do,' they heard him call out.

* * *

The TARDIS materialised in the control centre of the "Death Star", and was dwarfed by the size of it. It was standing on a raised deck that looked out over a lower deck staffed by hundreds of bald headed Ergos. To the left, was a large window that looked out along the length of the "leaf blower" to the bright blue orb of the Earth.

.

The right hand door of the TARDIS opened, and John stuck his head out. 'Hello. I'm the Doctor,' he said as he stepped out with his hands in his trouser pockets.

'Where is the changeling?' the commander asked. 'I said no tricks.'

'Yes, I know. No tricks. He's just er . . . just nipped to the toilet. I mean, he's only a lad. Facing an execution is a bit terrifying.' He raised his eyebrows and gave a single laugh. 'If it was me, I'd be wetting myself. So he just wanted to empty his bladder. Y'know, didn't want to make a bad impression. Won't be long.'

John reached into his jacket pocket, and a number of high tech "shotguns" pointed at him. He casually raised his hands. 'No weapons. I'm unarmed. I just want to reach something harmless out of my pocket,' he told them. The commander nodded.

He took out a pair of Ray ban sunglasses, unfolded them and put them on. 'Tell you what though, while we're waiting for him to finish, I could introduce you to some friends of mine . . . Wellll, I say friends. I've only met two of them, and only once.'

He carefully pulled the lapel of his jacket and reached inside, taking out his sonic screwdriver and holding it up to show it wasn't a weapon. 'But I think you'd like them. Same kind of inflexible, sadistic thinking that you're so fond of.'

'What friends? There's no one else here,' the commander said. The little blue box was certainly too small to hold anyone else but the changeling.

He took off the Ray bans and folded them up. He pressed the button on the sonic screwdriver and sonicked the glasses. 'They'll be here in a minute. Hold these for me while I go and check if the changeling has finished in the toilet.'

He threw the glasses to the commander and stepped back inside the TARDIS. As the TARDIS dematerialised, a group of shadowy figures appeared.

'So, that's that then,' John said as he stepped out of the TARDIS. The Knights were open mouthed in wonder at this blue wooden box which could appear and disappear.

'Jack, I think Adam and Lyndsey here would like to apply for refugee status and asylum,' John said, putting an arm around his wife's shoulders.

'What about that "Death Star" though? It's still in orbit,' Jack reminded him.

'Ah, yes it is. I bet the salvage rights on that are worth a bob or two, being that there's no one alive up there now.'

'John, what have you done?' Rose asked, worried that he'd done something terrible that he would later regret.

'Me? I haven't done anything,' he said in a high voice. 'Well, when I say I haven't done anything . . . I did introduced them to some like minded souls. And I'm afraid I lost your brothers glasses. We'll have to go back to Tiaanamat and he can chose something else.'

Rose realised what he had done. 'Oh my God, that's brilliant!'

He waggled his eyebrows in recognition of her praise, and then looked out over the Standby Room, searching for two faces. 'AMY! That fiancé of yours, Rory . . . I like him. Top banana. You should marry him.'

He next looked at Craig as he strolled over with Rose. 'Craig! Today you had a call from an agent that not many here have received, and by all accounts you managed to keep it together. Not bad my friend, not bad at all.'

He put his arms around their shoulders. 'Now, I don't want you to be put off by the events of today, it's quite rare . . . I mean agents getting shot, not the saving aliens and the planet being threatened . . . Although that's quite rare as well . . . Wellll, when I say quite rare, it does happen occasionally . . . Wellll, when I say occasionally . . .'

 **The End**


	11. Reflection at a wedding

**Chapter 11**

John and Rose made their way along the serving counter to the tills to pay for their lunch. Rose was looking for a table, when she saw Amy "Legs" Pond and her fiancé. Her nickname was nearly "Duck", but Amy gave Jake a look that would have melted steel when he suggested it.

Julia said that she had really nice legs when she'd seen her in that kissogram outfit, so why didn't they call her "Legs"? Amy thought about that and nodded. Rory always said he liked her legs, so "Legs" would be good. It would be a compliment rather than the derogatory "Duck".

John paid for their meals, and Rose weaved her way towards them. 'Can we join you?' Rose asked with a warm smile. She knew the pair were still in awe of everyone in Torchwood, and couldn't believe how friendly and informal the important, authority figures were.

'Oh. Mrs Smith, Dr. Smith. Yes of course. Please, have a seat,' Rory said.

'It's John and Rose,' John told him as he sat down. 'And if you insist on calling us Doctor and Mrs. Smith, I'll have to introduce you to the right hand of her mother,' he said, nodding sideways at his wife.

Rose snorted a laugh. 'Take no notice of him. He hasn't forgiven her for a well deserved slap he received years ago.'

'Okay. John and Rose it is then,' Rory said. 'Where I worked before, some of the consultants were a bit pompous and insisted on being addressed by their title, so it's become a bit of a habit.'

'Well, there's no pomposity here,' John informed them. 'If there was, we'd soon knock it out of them, eh Rose?'

'Yeah. It don't mean that people don't respect authority though. It's just that it's not expected or demanded. Even the director likes to be called Jack,' said Rose, as she ate her salad and stole a chip off John.

'Oi!' he exclaimed, and she gave him her cheeky smile. 'So, how's André coming along?' he asked Rory.

'Oh. I understand his course of physiotherapy is nearly complete. His recovery is unbelievable,' Rory replied. It had been just over a week since he had been shot in the chest, and the nanogenes were finishing the repair of his charred tissues.

'And how are your weddin' plans coming along?' Rose asked Amy.

Amy gave a furtive look at Rory, who had his normal expression of "doom and gloom". 'Fine . . . Yeah, fine.'

Rose picked up on the "fine" that meant things weren't fine. 'Is something the matter?'

Amy looked at Rory again. 'Well, I asked Rory if we could invite members of the Watch to the wedding, along with Dr. Jones and the team that Rory works with.'

'Oh, that's brilliant!' John said with a grin. 'The Watch came to our wedding. They were a right laugh. They made our day just that bit extra special.'

'Amy, we can't afford the extra people,' Rory told her as he reached for her hand to give it a squeeze. 'We can barely afford to invite all of our families, and our credit cards are maxed out.'

'I could get a loan,' Amy suggested. 'Only, I think it would be an important gesture to invite them. Y'know, team bonding and all that.'

'I know, and I'd like nothing more. But . . . we just can't. Sorry.'

Amy and Rory saw Rose looking at John as though they were having a conversation that only they could hear. Rose then turned towards them with a hesitant smile. 'Can I make a suggestion? What about if I pay for the Torchwood lot to come?'

Rory looked aghast, which made his "doom and gloom" expression look even "doomier and gloomier". 'No. We couldn't possibly ask you to do that.'

'Why not? She's loaded,' John said as he ate another chip. 'Why'd you think I married her? It wasn't for her looks.'

Amy gave a lovely, bubbly laugh, as Rose playfully slapped his arm. These two obviously important members of senior staff were so relaxed and playful.

'Look. John's right . . . not about my looks, about me bein' loaded. It's one of the perks of bein' the daughter of one of the richest men in Britain. And besides, I haven't been invited to a weddin' in ages. So, what d'ya say to that money bein' used for a bunch of people to have a good time and celebrate your weddin', rather than sittin' in a bank account gatherin' borin' interest?'

'Oh Rory. What'cha think?' Amy asked expectantly.

'I don't know. It's still an awful lot of money.'

Rose put on an officious expression. 'Nurse Williams. Are you sayin' that the Vitex heiress isn't welcome at your weddin'?'

The "doom and gloom" expression changed to "shock and horror". 'Er, no. Sorry. No, of course not.'

Rose winked at Amy, who had a beaming smile on her face. 'Good that's sorted then.'

'Can I just say as the Vitex heiresses legal advisor, that she can in no way be held responsible for the behaviour, or the consequences of said behaviour, of the aforementioned bunch of misfits and reprobates known as Blue Watch,' John said with a mischievous grin, which elicited another bubbly laugh from Amy, and actually made Rory smile.

Rose reached across the table and squeezed Rory's hand. 'You should smile more often, it suits your face.'

Rory's smile broadened and he gave a single laugh. 'Yeah, you're right. I've got a lot to smile about lately, what with a new job, a new career, and a soon to be new wife.'

John then remembered his own wedding. 'Oh and if you want to save some money, cancel the photographers. The Media Department will cover the place with cameras and put together a cracking video for you.'

'Really?' Amy asked, unable to believe their luck.

'Yeah. And if you want the Reception to rock, get a karaoke machine,' Rose told them, getting caught up in the excitement of going to a wedding.

She then thought about the person who had secretly arranged for the karaoke machine. 'And we know a brilliant weddin' planner. He's ex military. Very organised. Name's Alistair.'

* * *

 **Stonehouse Court Hotel.**

 **Stroud, Gloucestershire.**

After a beautiful service in the quaint Leadworth village church of St. Peter and St. Paul, a convoy of vehicles had driven the five miles along the Bristol Road, the the Reception venue of the 17th century Stonehouse Court Hotel near Stroud. The meal had been superb, and the after dinner speeches were in full flow.

Rory's father Brian, had given a humorous, and somewhat poignant speech about his son. About his early life, and how he was known as the school "freak" and "geek". He'd certainly shown them now, Brian had told them proudly. Getting a job with the prestigious Torchwood Institute, and marrying the prettiest girl in the village.

'Ladies and gentlemen,' the master of ceremonies called out after tapping a wine glass with a knife. 'May I ask you to show your appreciation for the father of the bride, who will now give his speech.'

There were cheers and applause as Augustus Pond, a short, round man, with male pattern baldness, stood and smiled. He patted his hands down in the air in a "shushing" gesture.

'Yes, thank you, thank you. Firstly, I'd like to thank you all for coming today to celebrate Amy and Rory's special day. There are a lot of faces here that I know, and some new faces that I do not. I hope to rectify that by the end of the day, and extend a warm welcome to Amy and Rory's new friends and colleagues from the Torchwood Institute,'

Augustus was very proud of his daughter's and son-in-law's new jobs in the high profile Institute, and couldn't help letting everyone know about it. They'd even been on telly. How brilliant was that?

'I must admit, I never realised how Amy's life would change after that team of agents arrived on our doorstep a few months ago . . .'

['I bet he didn't,'] John thought to his wife. ['Nobody could have . . . most of all Amy.']

Together, they thought back to that day when John had taken a team to the Cotswolds.

 **Torchwood Special Operations Unit.**

 **Torchwood Tower, Canary Wharf.**

 **Two months earlier.**

'Okay team. Settle down and lend me your ears for more wonderful weirdness,' said Rose, as she started the day's briefing. 'The first item is from Comms, who have picked up some "chatter" on social media. The search-bot highlighted a thread about mysterious voices in a house in Gloucestershire.'

'You should hear some of the voices I've heard after a pint of that scrumpy they serve out that way,' Stuart quipped, being a connoisseur of cider.

'Do these voices say anything?' Julia asked.

Rose looked at her tablet PC. 'Somethin' about escaped prisoners. There's no reports from the local constabulary of any problems, but last night one of our satellites happened to be over Britain when it picked up a blip from the Cotswolds.'

'A blip?' Jake asked.

'Yeah, a blip. And that's not all. It appears a house in the village of Leadworth has a room that is shielded with a Faraday cage. No electromagnetic waves in or out. So Julia and Jake, I'd like you to take a Mobile Incident Vehicle to Leadworth and check it out. I'm also requestin' John goes with you as technical support to find out about this "blip".'

Rose used her tablet to request the MIV and technical support. The technicians in the carpool would power up the six wheel Saracen style personnel carrier, and her husband would receive a request for technical support, along with the details of the mission.

'Item two. Another severed human foot has been found in a park in Bath . . .'

Ten minutes later, Jake and Julia had prepared their equipment, and were ready to leave with Matt Jackson, their camera director for this mission. Rose was going through some final instructions with her husband.

'And no gettin' into trouble. Promise me you'll stay in the MIV and direct operations from there.' She was reminding him of the reason they had resigned from field work; so that their children would have parents that came home after a shift.

John kissed her on the lips. 'I promise. Look, no black uniform. Just my old brown suit and coat. It's just a quick reconnaissance, and back home for tea. What could poss . . .'

She grabbed the lapels of his coat and pulled him into a kiss to stop him from finishing that sentence and putting a hex on the whole thing.

 **The Vicarage.**

 **Lawn Terrace.**

 **Leadworth, Gloucestershire.**

"Knock, knock, knock".

'Hello, Mrs. Pond?' Julia called through the coloured glass of the front door. Jake looked out over the large, untidy garden as they heard footsteps coming down the hallway, and a Scottish woman calling out.

'Yes, I'm coming.'

The door opened,and they saw a thin, middle aged woman with short strawberry blonde hair, wearing a long denim skirt, white blouse and a dark green cardigan.

Julia held up her Torchwood I.D card for the woman to see. 'Mrs. Pond? I'm Agent Julia De Graff, and this is my colleague, Jake Simmonds.

'Hiya,' Jake said with his cheeky smile.

'Torchwood? The people off the telly?' the woman enquired.

'Yeah. That's us,' Jake confirmed.

'Are you lost? Because this is Leadworth. Nothing ever happens in Leadworth,' she told them.

'Yes,' Julia agreed. 'It's very tranquil here. And we'd like to make sure it stays that way. Your daughter Amy . . . she is your daughter, Amelia Pond?'

'Yes. And my name's Tebetha by the way. What's Amy done now?' Tabetha, asked in that long suffering tone that weary parents use for their wayward children.

'Nothing. Not that we're aware of anyway. Our monitoring systems noticed some of Amy's posts on social media were about some unusual occurrences in the house,' Julia explained.

'Oh the voices on the landing,' Tabetha said in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. 'You'd better come in . . . Cup of tea?'

'Milk two sugars please,' Jake said as they stepped inside.

'We have a cameraman with us filming our investigating. Do we have your permission for him to film in your home?' Julia asked.

'What? You mean we're going to be on the telly? How exciting. Go through to the living room and I'll go and put the kettle on,' she said, directing them with her arm to a room to the right of the front door. 'Amy dear, there's someone to see you.'

'If it's Rory, tell him I'll see him later in the pub. I've got a birthday to do this afternoon,' a young Scottish voice called down the stairs.

'Er, no. It's those people off the telly. You know, those ghost busters on that documentary you like to watch.'

'What, Torchwood? Torchwood are here . . ? In our house?' From the living room, Julia, Jake and Matt Jackson heard footsteps coming down the stairs. 'Are you having a laugh Mum?'

A young, red haired woman police officer in a micro-skirted police uniform, stepped into the living room. Her beautiful round eyes went even rounder with a look of disbelief. 'Oh my God! You're Torchwood.'

'Yeah, we know,' Jake joked.

'Here, in our house!'

'Yeah, we know,' Jake said again with a cheeky grin.

'You're the Geordie one, "Peg",' she told him. 'And you're "Van",' she said to Julia. 'Oh the girls in the pub are gonna be SO jealous when I tell 'em about this. Can I get a selfie with you? Is that foxy scientist with you?'

['That'll be me she's talking about,'] John said in their earpieces, which made Julia snort a laugh.

'Amy,' Julia said, trying to reign in her enthusiasm for celebrity. 'Maybe we could discuss all that later. Your posts on Face-Blog came to our attention when you started a thread on ghostly voices on the first floor landing. Can you tell us about that?'

Tabetha brought in a tray with cups and saucers, a small jug of milk, and a small bowl of sugar, which she placed on the low table in front of the visitors. 'Jake, you said milk and two sugars,' and she proceeded to take everyone's preferences and serve the tea.

'It's been a few years now, hasn't it Mum?' Amy said, as she started to explain.

['Ask them if it was as long ago as 2007,'] John asked in their ear pieces.

'It wouldn't have been 2007 would it?' Julia asked.

Tabetha thought about it. 'No. It was after that, because I remember your Aunt Sharon having that trouble with her kidney stones when you first started hearing the voices.'

['That's a relief . . . Not the kidney stones, the date. It means it's not a Cyberman hiding up there,'] John told them.

'What do the voices say?' Jake asked.

Amy frowned in thought. 'Well, they always seem to be when you're not listening, if you know what I mean, so that you only catch snatches of them. It's something about an escaped prisoner.'

'I'm wondering if it's the ghost of an escaped prisoner who was looking for sanctuary,' Tabetha said, and then saw the puzzled expressions on the agent's faces. 'This is the old vicarage you know.'

['Hang on. I know I promised Rose I'd stay off the front lines, but I'm coming in,'] John told them. When people started talking about ghosts, he needed to start talking sense.

'Ah, I think our scientific advisor wants to come and speak to you,' said Julia.

'Does he drink tea? There's one left in the pot,' Tabetha said.

'Like a fish,' Jake told them.

They heard the front door open and close, and John's head popped around the corner. 'Hello. I'm John Smith, the Doctor.'

'It's you!' Amy exclaimed.

'Yeah, I know,' John told her as he walked into the room with his hands in his pockets.

'Ooh, look Mum. It's him,' Amy said.

'Yes Sweetheart. I can see that,' Tabetha replied.

John raised his eyebrows at Amy. 'Nice outfit. You must give me the address of the shop where you got it from.' He looked a Tabetha. 'Now, what's this nonsense about ghosts?'

'Well, it was just a thought,' she said sheepishly.

'It was indeed. But there are no such things as ghosts, so how's about we find out what these voices really are then,' John said with a grin. 'The first floor wasn't it?'

'Er, yeah. Somewhere on the landing,' Amy confirmed.

'Good. You wait here then and we'll go and have a look . . . or a listen. Having a listen would make more sense . . . We'll go and have a listen.' He looked at the agents and cameraman with their cups of tea in their hands. 'When you're ready.'

At the top of the stairs, they saw there was a door to the left, one directly in front of them, and one to the right. They walked along the short landing to the right, and looked to the right where they saw another two doors, one on the left wall, one on the right. The stairs then ascended again towards the attic. It certainly was a very spacious Edwardian vicarage.

Jake and Julia took out their scanners and opened the first two doors to scan the interior. Matt Jackson stood at the top of the stairs and filmed the action. John took out his sonic screwdriver and walked along the short landing to the right. As he turned the corner, he noticed a red haired WPC standing next to Matt.

John rolled his eyes. 'What didn't you understand about "stay here"?'

'Well, he's here,' Amy said, nodding at Matt. 'And he's not an agent. So I thought if I stand by him, it wouldn't hurt.'

John was about to say something, but he couldn't argue with her logic. 'Couldn't wait to watch it on TV eh?' he said with a smile. 'Okay. But stay by Matt, and don't get in shot.'

She nodded and gave him a thumbs up. Julia closed the door to the left hand bedroom and gave her a smile and a wink. John went along the landing and stood by the window that looked out over the garden. He turned and sat on the old, cast iron radiator under the window. He looked up the stairs to the attic, looked at the door to his left, and at the door to his right.

He crossed his arms and looked back along the landing to the right hand door in the corner. Julia and Jake walked towards him.

'Have you spotted it yet?' he asked them as they came and stood either side of him. Matt had moved around to film them from the top of the stairs.

'Spotted what?' Jake asked. 'The bedrooms are clean.'

John adjusted the sonic and pointed it to the far wall. It made a warbling, whistling noise, and the wall started to shimmer as a sixth door slowly appeared.


	12. The alien and the kissogram

**Chapter 12**

In the wall where previously there had only been one door, a second door appeared.

'Oh my God! Where did that come from?' Amy asked in open mouthed surprise.

'It's always been there,' John told her. 'You just don't remember it.' He walked back along the landing towards the stairs. 'And I think it's time you went downstairs now.'

'Hey, don't worry. If it kicks off, try and keep up with me,' Amy scoffed.

Once again, John rolled his eyes at her and stood in front of her at the top of the stairs, next to Matt. 'Right then you two. Go and do what you do best.'

Jake and Julia drew their stun guns and powered them up. Julia stood to the side of the door and reached across for the round, brass knob. Jake knelt down and levelled his gun at the door. He nodded, and Julia slowly turned the knob and eased the door open.

Jake cautiously moved into the room, which opened out in front and to the right of him. It appeared to be in the middle of being decorated, and cooking foil was spread around the walls and the ceiling.

Julia moved in behind him and took a flanking position on the adjacent wall at right angles to Jake. 'See anything?'

'Nah. What are we looking for anyway?'

['Prisoner Zero has escaped,'] a gruff voice announced in their ear comms.

'Prisoner Zero?' Jake said with a frown.

'That's the voice!' Amy declared, as she heard it coming from the audio output of Matt's camera. 'It was always when I was half asleep, so I thought I'd dreamed it.'

'Who's Prisoner Zero?' Julia asked.

'I think it might be that!' Jake said, as a nine foot long Anaconda with needle sharp teeth looked him in the eye.

'JAKE!' Julia shouted. She fired at the serpent.

Zap! Zap! The serpent recoiled from the energy discharge, but didn't fall unconscious. Jake took the opportunity to back up towards the door. Zap! He took a shot himself as he reached the door.

'Doc, the stunners aren't working,' Julia called out as they backed onto the landing.

'Everyone downstairs. NOW!' John called out. 'Protect the civilians.'

['Prisoner Zero has escaped.']

Jake and Julia holstered their stun guns and replaced them with their Heckler & Koch MP5SF's as they backed towards the stairs. Amy started down the stairs, followed by Matt and John. A workman in overalls and tool belt, with a Rottweiler dog stepped out onto the landing.

'But it's just . . .' Amy was about to tell them it was a man called Barney, but John interrupted.

'No, it isn't. Look at the faces.'

The man barked. 'What? I'm sorry, but what?' Amy said.

'It's all one creature,' John told them. 'One creature disguised as two. Clever old multi-form. A bit of a rush job, though. Got the voice a bit muddled, did you? Mind you, where did you get the pattern from? You'd need a psychic link, a live feed. How did you fix that?' The man in the hallway opened his mouth to reveal long needle-like teeth. 'Stay, boy!'

['Attention, Prisoner Zero. The human residence is surrounded. Attention Prisoner Zero. The human residence is surrounded.']

'Ah. Sounds like the cavalry has arrived. Run!' John said, and everyone ran down the stairs. Julia went into the living room and ushered Tabetha along the hallway and out of the front door along with everyone else.

'What's going on? Tell me. Tell me!' Amy called out as they ran into the garden.

'An alien convict is hiding in your spare room disguised as a man and a dog, and some other aliens are looking for it. Any questions?'

'Yes!' Amy said.

'Plenty,' Tabetha agreed.

'Me too,' said John. 'First of which is . . . if the residence is surrounded . . . where are they?'

['Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated.']

'Woh, woh, woh, hang on a minute. What's with the incinerating?' John called out to the garden.

'Doc . . . Prisoner Zero,' Jake said as the man and his dog appeared at the front door and barked.

'Quick! To the MIV,' John ordered.

Blam! Blam! Jake and Julia fired at the man and his dog.

'Oh that's not going to work,' John told them as they ran along the path to the gate. 'It's a multiform being. The bullets will pass right through it.'

They ran into Lawn Terrace, which was just off the High Street and had a small, raised, triangular grass area with a celtic stone cross in the middle. John pressed the key fob for the Mobile Incident Vehicle, which caused the rear door to lower and form an access ramp.

They ran up the ramp into the back of the high tech vehicle. On the right hand side, there were rows of flat screen monitors, and a narrow control desk. Opposite that, were a row of seats for the agents that faced the monitors. Above the seats were overhead storage lockers for equipment and weapons.

John had a seat at the control desk, whilst Julia indicated seats for Amy and her mother to sit in. The small radar dish on the roof of the MIV started to revolve, and John scanned the immediate area for pyromaniac aliens which he had identified as the Atraxi.

'Come on, come on. Where are you?' John asked the screens. 'You said the human residence is surrounded.'

'Could they be hiding, like the door was?' Amy asked as she watched him work.

'Nah. This equipment would spot a perception filter,' John replied, and then looked over his shoulder as he realised who had asked the question. 'But that was a reasonable question . . . Well done.'

Amy looked surprised and pleased at the same time. 'Oh . . . Thanks.'

He turned back to the desk. 'John Smith to Despatch. Angel, I need a satellite sweep over Leadworth. Are there any aliens in the Cotswolds?'

['Despatch to Doctor Smith. They are not in the Cotswolds, they are in orbit around the equator.']

'Are they now? Well, I'd better have a word with them. Angel, I need you to patch this feed through the satellite uplink.'

['Copy that Doctor Smith. You are now linked to the satellite feed.']

'Thank you Angel. You're an angel . . . Oi, Atraxi! Did you think no one was watching when you threatened to burn down someone's house?'

['Prisoner Zero has escaped. The human residence is surrounded. Prisoner Zero must be captured or be incinerated,'] the gruff voice said.

'Yes, yes, I know all that. But there's no one surrounding the house, or the village. You're all in orbit . . . around the planet!'

['Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated.']

'The human residence. You mean the planet, don't you? Well. I'm invoking article fifty seven of the Shadow Proclamation. This is a fully established level five planet, and you think you can just come along and burn it? Not on my watch!'

['Prisoner Zero will vaca . . .']

John waved his hand in dismissal. 'Yeah, yeah, you said. Why don't you just pick him up and go?'

['Prisoner Zero is hidden from us,'] the gruff voice told him.

'Ah, the disguise. You can't detect him. Okay, here's what's going to happen. One: You will stop threatening to burn the planet, or I'll take your matches off you. Two: I will find Prisoner Zero for you. And "C" . . . sorry. Three: You will take Prisoner Zero and leave this planet and NEVER return. Is that understood?'

Amy leaned close to Julia in the seat next to her. 'Blimey. He's good.'

Julia flashed her a smile. 'He's the best!'

['Your proposal is acceptable.']

'Damn right it is, 'cos it's the only one you're getting.' He shut off the comms channel and turned to Jake and Julia. 'Now, we have something that the Atraxi don't.'

'What?' Jake asked.

'Amy Pond and her local knowledge. when you saw Prisoner Zero, you said "but it's just", as though you recognised him.'

'Yeah, it's Barney, the village odd job man.'

'And how is it that he was able to use Barney the odd job man as a template?'

'Well, that's the weird thing. Barney fell off a ladder months ago and had a head injury. My boyfriend Rory has been nursing him in the coma ward.'

'Fiancé dear. He's your fiancé,' Tabetha corrected.

'Whatever Mum,' Amy said, rolling her eyes. 'But that's not the best of it. Rory's been taking pictures of his coma patients around the village. I thought he was just Photoshopping them as a joke, but now, I'm not so sure.'

'Right then. That's our destination, the hospital. Jake, start her up and run us over there if you would.'

'I'm on it Doc,' Jake said as he moved forward to the cab and climbed into the driving seat.

They drove out of the village, along the Gloucester Road for half a mile, before coming to the Leadworth Memorial Hospital on the left.

'Right. Amy, Tabetha. Please stay here while we sort this out,' John said.

'Of course Doctor Smith. We wouldn't want to hinder you in the performance of your duties,' Tabetha said, giving her daughter a stern look.

Amy saw the look. 'What?' she asked innocently.

'Right! Hello. Are we late?' John said as he walked onto the coma ward.

'Who the hell are you? What's going on?' a woman in a white coat asked him.

John approached her, reading her name badge. 'Ahh. Doctor Ramsden. Nice to meet you,' he said. 'What's going on is that an alien is using your patient's identities to disguise itself.' He took out his sonic screwdriver. 'But I'm here to tare the mask off, like they do on Scooby Doo.'

'Do you think, Time Lord?' Prisoner Zero asked; who was now appearing as a woman with her two daughters.

'Take the disguise off. They'll find you in a heartbeat. Nobody dies.' The prisoner didn't know he'd made a deal with the Atraxi, and he wanted to keep it that way.

'The Atraxi will kill me this time. If I am to die, let there be fire.' So he'd been right not tell the prisoner about the deal.

John turned to Jake and Julia. 'Amy said her fiancé had taken photos of Prisoner Zero disguised as the patients. I'm presuming he used his phone. Find him and bring me the phone.'

'Okay.' 'Right,' they said, and set off to find a nurse called Rory.

John had to stall for time until he got the photographs. 'So, Prisoner Zero. Been hiding for a few years in that spare room then? Well, I suppose it makes a change from the attic,' he said, pulling his earlobe.

'And you'd nip in and out for a bite to eat when there was nobody in the house. Only, that caused a bli **p** , didn't it?' He popped the "P". 'And the Atraxi would spot that bli **p** and send out the warning that you had escaped. Only when you tried it at night when everyone was asleep, they half heard the warning . . .'

Whilst John was stalling, Julia spotted a male nurse in a side room. He had short, light brown hair wearing blue scrubs, and was putting up an IV line for a patient.

'Excuse me. I'm looking for a nurse called Rory.'

When he turned to face her, Julia took in his features. He had a slight hooked nose, and thin lips that tended to turn down at the edges. His blue eyes were kind and caring, and his eyebrows pointed downwards at the bridge of his nose. With this, and the cast of his mouth, he wore a perpetually worried expression.

When he saw a woman in paramilitary uniform, wearing a utility belt and a side arm, his worried expression bordered on panic. 'Er, yeah. I'm Rory . . . What's going on?'

'Your girlfriend Amy told us that you've taken pictures of comatose patients around the village,' Julia explained.

'Amy?! Is she okay?' Rory asked in alarm, thinking something bad had happened as there was a soldier looking for him.

Julia smiled to try and reassure him. 'She's fine, but if you've got those photos, it would really help us.'

Rory reached into the pocket of his scrub top and took out his phone. 'I didn't do anything wrong did I? I mean, I know about patient confidentiality, but these patients were walking about in the village when they should have been unconscious in bed.'

Julia took the phone. 'That's okay Rory. We're here to sort it out. Thanks for the phone. We'll give it back when we've finished.' She ran out of the room and headed back towards John and Prisoner Zero.

'Did you raid the fridge? Or did you pop out to snack on a dog?' John was asking the alien. Prisoner Zero didn't react, and John shrugged. 'A cat maybe?' he asked with raised eyebrows, and then frowned in disgust. 'Not a rat. Tell me you didn't eat rats . . . Although, that would be providing a public service . . .'

'Doc, I've got it!' Julia called out as she ran down the ward.

John took out his sonic screwdriver. 'Let there be fire, eh?' he said to Prisoner Zero with a smug smile. 'I don't think so. You've been noticed. As the comatose patients wandering around the village,' he told him. 'And this is the good bit. I mean, this is my favourite bit. Do you know what this phone is full of? Pictures of you. Every form you've learned to take, right here.' He sonicked Rory's phone. 'Ooh, and being uploaded right about now.'

A bright light shone through the window. 'Oh! And I think they just found us!'

['Prisoner Zero is located. Prisoner Zero is restrained.']

The alien faded away in a bright light. 'And that,' John started, flipping his sonic in the air. 'Is that!' He put the sonic inside his jacket and gave Julia a satisfied smile.

Julia contacted Jake via the ear comms and told him to meet them at the MIV.

'Torchwood Taxi's,' John joked as he climbed into the back of the MIV. 'Two for drop off at the vicarage.'

'Is it over?' Amy asked. 'Is Rory all right?'

'Yeah he's fine. Oh, and here's his phone,' Julia said, handing her Rory's mobile.

'Couldn't have done it without him,' John told them as Jake started the MIV and headed back to the vicarage. 'I didn't get the chance to meet him, but he seems a very resourceful young man.'

Back in Lawn Terrace, everyone walked down the ramp from the MIV, and John turned to Tabetha and Amy. 'So you've got your spare room back now. You can finish decorating it.'

'I can't believe we forgot it was there,' Tabetha said.

'I suppose you're all off back to London now then,' Amy said, her voice tinged with disappointment.

'Yeah. Carrying on the good work,' John said with a smile. 'And thank you for your help. I've got to say, you seemed to take all of this in your stride.'

Amy smiled. 'Well, I'm a fan of the show, and Rory's always been a bit of a science geek.'

There was something about this Scottish girl that reminded John of his wife when she was a nineteen year old shop worker. She was keen, smart, and flexible in her thinking. He had an outrageous idea.

'How would you like to have a tour of the Institute?' he asked her.

'John?' Julia asked suspiciously.

Her eyes went wide. 'A tour of Torchwood? Seriously? That would be brilliant!' She then remembered something from earlier. 'A selfie. I haven't had a selfie with you all yet. Come on, I can use Rory's phone.'

'I think I can do better than that,' Matt said as he shouldered his professional video camera. 'Everyone in front of the MIV. Amy and Tabetha either side of John, Jake and Julia on the ends.'

The group lined up, and John put his arms around the Pond's shoulders. Amy slipped her arm around his waist.

'I'll take a high definition still, and then I'll take a bit of video. I can email it to you. Say cheese,' Matt said.

They all laughed and said "cheese", and then Amy couldn't help herself. She grabbed John's lapels and pulled him into a full on snog. Jake laughed and whistled, whilst Julia applauded.

'Amelia Pond!' Tabetha said in a stern voice.

Amy released him from the kiss and ran her tongue around her lips. 'Sorry. I've been fantasising about that since I saw you on the telly.'

John cleared his throat. 'And, er . . . did it live up to the fantasy?'

She gave him a coy glance. 'Oh yes . . . very hot.'

John pulled his lapels, and tried unsuccessfully to smooth his unruly hair. He sniffed and twitched his head. 'Yep . . . still got it.'


	13. The Lodger

**Chapter 13**

'And so I'd just like to say Amy, I love you Sweetheart and you've made your old dad very proud and very happy. And Rory, any father would be proud to have you as a son-in-law, and I consider myself lucky to be that father. Thank you for making my daughter so happy,' Augustus said, bringing his speech to a close.

The guests "ahh'd" and applauded as he sat down.

'So when Amy came for the tour, you introduced her to Andy then?' Rose said quietly as she clapped her hands.

'Yeah. He thought I was joking when I suggested he should try her out for a field agent. But she soon showed him that she had the right stuff, and the rest is history.'

'You crafty bugger,' Rose said as she kissed his cheek.

When all the speeches were finished, and the cake had been cut, it was time for the evening "do". The karaoke had gone down a storm, as promised, and the DJ had got everyone up on the dance floor with his play list.

After dancing the night away, John and Rose were wandering around with drinks in their hands, mingling with guests and getting to know the families of the bride and groom.

'Craig,' John said as he spotted the new recruit with his blue eyed, blonde haired girlfriend Sophie. 'How are things?'

'Good, thank you Doctor Smi . . . er, John. Yeah. It's been nice to see everyone in their civvies having such a good time.'

'Hello Craig,' Rose said. 'And you must be Sophie,' she said, shaking her hand. 'I'm Rose.'

'Yes, I know. I've become a fan of the show since Craig's joined.'

Rose laughed. 'And how does it feel, bein' drawn into the Torchwood family.'

'It's amazing. I mean, I worked in the call centre with Craig, and we had office banter, and went out to Christmas parties. But the feel I get from all of you, the comradery . . . well, it's incredible.'

'Yeah, I know what y'mean. My dad had a lot to do with that. After the Cyber attacks of 2007, the president asked him to take over and clean up Torchwood. Special Operations was already a tight knit unit, and Dad worked with Andy to extend that closeness throughout the Institute.'

'Well, it worked,' Sophie said. 'And thanks to you, I've got my new man.'

Rose looked puzzled. 'New man?'

'Yeah. He's lost so much weight, I had to get him measured for a new suit for today. And of course, we wouldn't have gotten together if it hadn't been for Torchwood.'

'Oh yeah. That wasn't in the mission log, but John mentioned that you'd declared yer love for each other.'

Craig had a far away look in his eyes as he remembered that weird day.

 **Torchwood Special Operations Unit.**

 **Torchwood Tower, Canary Wharf.**

 **Two months earlier.**

'Item three. Essex police have asked us to help them with a number of mysterious disappearances in Colchester. The psychology department have already performed a geographical profile of the missing people, and have narrowed it down to half a dozen streets within a square mile area,' Rose told Blue Watch.

'The science lead wants to go to the area and scan the neighbourhood from an MIV. Stuart and Pete, I'd like you to babysit on this one.'

'Okay Chief,' Stuart replied.

['Babysit?'] John thought to her indignantly.

Rose gave him a mental grin. ['Okay. Doctor-sit. You know you're the trouble finder general.']

['You're just jealous of that kiss I got from that kissogram, aren't you.']

['She's jealous of me more like. Don't forget, we do more than just kiss.'] She sent him an erotic memory of their bedroom gymnastics. ['Oh, talkin' of kissogram. Gotta finish the briefin'. Love you.']

Their mental conversation had taken a fraction of a second. 'Finally. We have a young lady comin' to visit today. She's a fan of the show and helped one of our teams on a shout.'

'Oh, Amy,' Jake said. 'A bit of all right she was . . . and a good kisser by all accounts,' he finished with a cheeky grin.

'Yeah, well she's a guest of the Institute, so I expect everyone to welcome her, show her what we do here, and be on your best behaviour, Jake,' Rose said, giving Jake a knowing look.

'Yes miss.'

 **79a Aickman Road.**

 **Colchester, Essex.**

John pressed the doorbell marked 79a and heard someone come to the door.

The door opened and an overweight young man with fair hair said, 'I love you.'

'Well, isn't that nice,' John said cheerfully with an open mouthed smile.

'No! I thought you were . . .'

'Oh, don't tell me you've changed your mind. A declaration a love and a rejection, all in under a minute. That's got to be a new record for me. And that's saying something,' John said, pulling a face and scratching the back of his neck.

The young man looked confused (which wasn't unusual when John put his mouth in gear). 'Can I help you?'

John frowned and thought about that as his babysitters came up the path. 'Probably not,' he decided. 'But we can definitely help you. That's "Irish" Stu, but he's not Irish. And that's "Welsh" Pete, and he is . . . Not Irish, Welsh. Pete's Welsh' he clarified. 'I'm John. Oh, and the chap with the camera is Chris.'

The young man looked at the black uniforms, with the white "T" logo made of hexagons on the upper arms and suddenly realised who they were. 'Oh my God. It's you lot!'

Pete grinned. 'Yeah, we know.'

'And you're him!' the young man told John.

'Yeah, I know.'

'Oh-my-God! This is unbelievable.'

'Yeah, they know,' Chris Greenwood said from behind the camera which made the team laugh.

'Can we come in Craig. We've got something to discuss,' John said seriously.

'What? Oh! Yeah, of course. Come in.' He directed them down the short hallway to a room on the left.

'Oh, this is nice,' John said, looking around the tidy living room and sitting on the sofa. 'Very 1980's.'

'Hang on, you called me Craig,' the young man (whose name was apparently Craig) said.

'Well, that is your name isn't it? Craig Owens?' John asked.

'Yeah. How did you do that?'

John tugged his ear. 'Welll. I could have said it was an advanced name string search algorithm developed by Felman Lux for use in The Library. That's the planet, not the one in town,' John explained.

Craig looked in awe at this thin, gangly man in a brown pinstriped suit and messy hair. 'Blimey.'

'But really, we just looked you up on the electoral register.'

'Oh,' he said disappointedly. He felt almost cheated that they hadn't used some high tech spy equipment to find out who he was.

While they were talking, Sophie returned to pick up her keys that she realised she had left behind. She was going to press the doorbell, when she noticed it had been left ajar. She stepped inside and was about to go into the flat when she saw a little girl holding a doll at the top of the stairs.

'Please can you help me?' the girl asked.

'Hi,' Sophie said in a friendly tone. She must be a relative of the lodger upstairs she thought.

'Please, will you help me?'

'What's the matter, my love?' Maybe she'd locked herself out of the flat. 'Help you?' Sophie put her shoulder bag on the floor and started up the stairs.

'But do you know what's weird?' John asked conspiratorially.

'What?'

'Do you know who lives upstairs?'

'No. Just some bloke.'

'What's he look like?'

'Normal . . . He's very quiet.' A crash from upstairs refuted that statement. Craig looked at the ceiling. 'Is that why you're here? Is he weird?'

'No. Well, we don't know. He could be weird. But what's weird ABOUT him is that he's not on the electoral register.'

'Really?'

'Yeah. And do you want to know what's even weirder?' Craig nodded. 'He doesn't show any results on the Felman Lux advanced name string search algorithm either.'

Craig's mouth fell open. There really was a Felman Lux advanced name string search algorithm. 'So who is he? Is he an alien like y'see on the telly?'

John pulled a face. 'Welllll, we don't really know.'

'Well haven't you used some of those high tech gadgets from the show to scan the flat, like Mr. Spock does?'

John had a wistful smile as he remembered Rose asking him to do a "Spock" scan not long after they had started travelling together. 'We've tried. But to save you all the technical jargon; there's a localised time loop causing a temporal distortion. Whatever is upstairs has put a deadlock seal around the whole flat. Because time is a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey . . . stuff, Any scan gives us results from the 1970's to the 2150's, but not from today.'

'I'm glad you saved me from the technical jargon,' Craig said sarcastically. 'So you're saying the results from the scan you've taken are going to some other time, and you're receiving results that would have been taken years ago?'

'I know it's difficult to understand,' John started to say, and then frowned at Craig. 'Er, yeah. Or results from the future. But yeah, that's exactly it,' he said with an impressed smile.

['Despatch to Doctor Smith. Over,'] Danny Walton said in his ear comms.

'Smith here. What have you got for me Danny?'

['You requested information on the property 79 Aickman Road?']

'Yes. What have you found?'

['And you said both floors, yes?']

John rolled his eyes. 'Yes, both floors. What have you got?'

['I've got one floor is what I've got Doc. There is no second floor.']

John looked up at the ceiling, and there was a loud crash from upstairs. 'Someone's up there.' He sprang to his feet. 'Craig, stay down here. Stuart, Pete. With me.'

Stuart and Pete drew their stun guns and followed John into the hallway. Chris shouldered his camera, ready to film from the foot of the stairs. Craig went to the living room door to watch, when he saw Sophie's bag at the foot of the stairs. He thought back to when she had left a short while ago, just before Torchwood arrived.

She had spoken to her friend Melina on the phone and then put her phone in her bag, put it over her shoulder and left. So how could it be on the floor by the stairs? It hadn't been there when he'd opened the door to the Torchwood team.

'Er, John . . . That's my friend Sophie's bag on the floor.'

The team stopped at the foot of the stairs and looked at the shoulder bag. 'So?' John asked.

'Well. She went out just before you turned up, and she had it with her.' As if on cue, there was a womans scream from upstairs. 'Sophie. It's Sophie up there! It's Sophie!' Craig said, running up the stairs.

'Craig, no!' john called out. 'It's dangerous.' He saw Craig rattling the door handle. 'Oh what's the point?' John said and ran up the stairs after him. He sonicked the door, and they went inside.

'What?' Craig asked in confusion. 'What?'

'Oh . . . Oh, of course,' John said as he looked around a high-tech room with a central control console. 'The time engine isn't in the flat, the time engine is the flat. Someone's attempt to build a TARDIS.'

'No, there's always been an upstairs,' Craig told him.

The door they had just come through flickered between a front door and a bulkhead door. 'Has there? Think about it.'

'Yes . . . No . . . I don't . . .'

'Perception filter. It's more than a disguise. It tricks your memory.'

They heard a scream from the other side of the central console.

'Sophie! Sophie! Oh, my God, Sophie!' Craig called out.

Sophie was being pulled towards the central console by a web of electricity. 'Craig,' she called back.

'It's controlling her,' John told him. 'It's willing her to touch the activator.'

'That's not going to have her,' Craig said and grabbed her arm to try and stop her. Her hand was pulled onto a dome shaped control.

John used his sonic screwdriver. 'Ah, deadlock seal.'

'You've got to do something,' Craig pleaded.

As John worked with the sonic, Sophie was released and fell back into Craig's arms.

'What? Why's it let her go?' John looked around the room, and saw the mummified remains of the pilot. 'So, okay . . .'

A man suddenly appeared in the room. 'You will help me,' he demanded. Stuart and Pete leveled their stun guns at the man.

'No, wait,' John ordered. 'Right. Stop. Crashed ship, let's see. Hello, I'm Scott Tracey of International Rescue. Please state the nature of your emergency.'

'The ship has crashed. The crew are dead. A pilot is required.'

'You're the emergency crash program. A hologram,' John reasoned. He sonicked the man. 'What, you've been luring people up here so you can try them out?'

The hologram flickered between an old man. 'You will help me.' A young man. 'You will help me.' And a young girl. 'You will help me.'

Sophie had recovered, and came to her senses. 'Craig, what is this? Where am I?'

'Hush,' John told her. He was thinking. 'Human brains aren't strong enough, they just burn. But you're stupid, though. You just keep trying,' he told the autopilot.

'Seventeen people have been tried. Six billion four hundred thousand and twenty six remain.'

'Doc?' Stuart asked cautiously, trying to assess the threat. 'We should evacuate the civilians.'

'Seriously, what is going on?' Sophie asked again.

John rolled his eyes. This wasn't the time for explanations. 'The top floor of Craig's building is in reality an alien space ship intent on slaughtering the population of this planet.'

'The correct pilot has now been found,' the Autopilot announced.

'Yes, I was a bit worried that you were going to say that.'

'What does he mean Doc?' Pete asked.

The Autopilot used its energy to drag John towards the console. 'The correct pilot has been found . . . The correct pilot has been found . . . The correct pilot has been found.'

'Doc. Talk to me,' Pete said.

'It's pulling me in. I'm the new pilot.'

'Could you do it?' Stuart asked. 'Could you fly the ship safely?'

'No, I'm way too much for this ship. My hand touches that panel, the planet doesn't blow up, the whole solar system does.'

'The correct pilot has been found.'

'No. Worst choice ever, I promise you. Stop this.' He was trying to work out how to deactivate the autopilot. 'It doesn't want everyone. Craig, it didn't want you.'

'I spoke to him and he said I couldn't help him.'

'So why does it want Sophie? What's different between you two today?'

'I don't know,' Craig cried out in a panic. 'We had arranged a night of pizza, booze and telly like we normally do. And then Melina phoned with a new crisis and asked her to go over.'

'So she was going out tonight. She was going to leave. It's a machine that needs to leave. It wants people who want to leave. And you wanted to stay in, Craig. You're Mister Couch Potato Man.'

'Oh thanks!'

'Craig, you can shut down the engine. Put your hand on the panel and concentrate on why you want to stay.'

'Craig, no!' Sophie cried.

'Will it work?'

'Yes.'

'Are you sure?'

'Er, yes.'

'Is that a lie?'

'Welllll . . .'

'Ah what the hell. That's good enough for me. Argh!' Craig put his hand on the nearest control panel, and John was released.

'CRAIG!' Sophie called to him.

Smoke was coming off Craig's hand. 'Craig, what's keeping you here? Think about everything that makes you want to stay here. Why don't you want to leave?' John asked him, as he slapped his face.

'Sophie. I don't want to leave Sophie. I can't leave Sophie . . . I love Sophie.'

'I love you, too, Craig, you idiot.' She put her hand on Craig's.

'Honestly, do you mean that?' Craig asked in disbelief.

'Of course I mean it. Do you mean it?'

'I've always meant it. Seriously though, do you mean it?'

'Yes.'

'What about Melina?' Craig asked her.

'Oh, not now,' John said, rolling his eyes. 'Craig, the planet's about to burn. For God's sake, kiss the girl.'

'Kiss the girl!' Stuart said

'Go on lad. Snog her face off,' Pete said, and Craig and Sophie kissed, which released Craig's hand from the panel.

'Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me,' the Autopilot repeated.

Craig and Sophie came up for air from their epic first kiss. 'Did we switch it off?' Craig asked.

'Emergency shutdown,' John said. 'It's imploding. Everybody out, out, out!'

'Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me.'

John, Stuart, Pete, Craig and Sophie ran down the stairs and outside. The top floor and roof turned into the Timeship which then flew away, leaving a totally incongruous one story building at the end of an entirely two storey terrace. A man walked by carrying a child, oblivious to what had just occurred.

'Look at them,' Craig said. 'Didn't they see that? The whole top floor just vanished.'

'Perception filter. There never was a top floor,' John explained.

Back in the flat, the one and now only flat, Craig and Sophie were snogging on the sofa. 'So have we spoiled our friendship, then?' Craig asked her.

'Totally ruined it,' she replied, and they started snogging again.

John entered the living room and grinned at them. Was it warm in here or what? He cleared his throat to get their attention 'Ahem.'

The two lovebirds jumped apart. 'Oh, Doctor Smith. It's you.'

John laughed. 'We already did that one when we first met. We're going now, so I just wanted to say goodbye, and to say thank you for your help. Good work up there.'

'Glad to help. And I should be thanking you. If it hadn't been for that autopilot thing, I would never have told Sophie how I felt about her. I never had the courage to tell her outright,' Craig confessed.

'Putting your hand on that panel was one of the most courageous things I've seen. And believe me, I've seen some courageous things. You should think about a change of career . . . try applying to Torchwood.'

Craig spluttered. 'No . . . Really . . ? No! It's mental . . . I mean, it's just plain weird!'

'So was being in love with a girl and not telling her,' John retorted.

'I . . . I . . .' Craig tried to think of a response, but he couldn't.

Moonlight Serenade started playing at the Reception, and John reached for Rose's hand. 'You'll have to excuse us,' he said to Craig and Sophie. 'They're playing our song.'

They stepped onto the dancefloor and Rose draped her arms around his neck. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her tight as they swayed to the slow rhythm, both remembering that special moment in the Albion Hospital before Jack teleported them to his ship.

John rested his forehead against hers and looked into her hazel eyes. 'I've been thinking,'

'Well, there's a first time for everythin',' she joked.

'Hey, don't laugh, because it's about something you said to Sophie.' Rose looked puzzled as she tried to remember their conversation.

'You welcomed her to the Torchwood family, and that got me thinking about our Blue Watch family.'

'Yeah. I suppose they are like our brothers and sisters, with old uncle Andy,' she laughed.

'Mmm. And you can't have any favourites.'

'I know,' she said defensively. 'I'm always fair when I'm handin' out the missions,'

He kissed her on the lips. 'You are. However, I was thinking about Angel. We're the closest thing she's got to a family.'

'Yeah, I know that an' all. She's asked me to be her chief bridesmaid, so where are you goin' with this?'

'Well, you my love, have single handedly helped to make Amy and Rory's wedding really special by allowing them to invite the Watch.'

'Oh, that was nothin' really,' she said modestly. She was more than happy to use her money to make her friends happy.

'It's a good job it was nothing then, because you're going to have to do it all over again in Switzerland when André and Angel get married.'

'Oh yeah. I hadn't thought of that. Still, it'll be a nice holiday though won't it,' she said with a smile. 'I wonder if Dad will lend us his airship?'

 **The End**


End file.
